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Abstract: 

Do police officers add to a victim’s sense of safety and support when they arrive at her door, or are they more likely to re-injure or even arrest her? This article provides a victim\'s-eye view answering questions like this and others via first-hand reports from DV victims. These reports reveal the complexities of trying to integrate the philosophies and policies of law enforcement with the domestic violence movement’s agenda to keep victims safe and out of harm’s way. It also describes and evaluates an ongoing effort on coordination between advocates and law enforcement to increase efficiencies and decrease the danger to victim-survivors and concludes with a report done by the Assessment Team identifying gaps to effective incident documentation.

Keywords: ‘uneasy allies’; Coordinated Community Response; inter-agency response to domestic violence; Domestic Violence Firearms Compliance Unit; over-reliance on policing; Duluth Model; “Help Other Survivors of Domestic Violence” focus group; Unident

Affiliations:  1: lawyer and writer.