It has been one year since the Ansonia Police Department and BHCare (formerly the Birmingham Group) started a new joint domestic abuse prevention program.
The goal of the program — called the Lethality Assessment Program — is to prevent homicides stemming from domestic violence.
The program trains Ansonia police officers to assess whether a victim of domestic violence is likely to become a homicide victim.
Officers look at risk factors, such as weapons in a home.
Under the program, police officers responding to scenes of family violence immediately connect high-risk victims with BHCare services through a 24-hour hotline.
“We consider it very successful because there are people going into services on the spot,” Ansonia Police Chief Kevin Hale said. “They’re connecting immediately to an advocate, rather than being left on their own.”
Previously, police officers would give domestic violence victims contact information for services from BHCare, but would leave it up to the victim to make the call on his or her own.
Now, the officer actually makes the call from the scene of the incident, with permission from the victim.
“If you look at the data, 50 percent of (domestic related) homicides have had previous contact from police,” said Cindy Carlson the program coordinator for BHCare’s Center for Domestic Violence Services. “Police are very much involved in these pre-homicide situations.”
And yet, only about 4 percent of domestic homicide victims had sought help through a program like the Center for Domestic Violence Services, Carlson said.
“This assessment fills in that gap,” Carlson said. “It’s a very powerful tool.”
It’s hard to quantify the results of the program, because police will never know how many homicides they could have prevented.
But the program has exceeded expectations with regard to the amount of people that have followed through with programs through the Center for Domestic Violence Services, Hale said.
THE NUMBERS
Since March 2011, Ansonia police officers have screened 78 victims of domestic abuse using the Lethality Assessment Program.
About 85 percent of the victims assessed as “high risk” agreed to speak to a BHCare advocate at the scene of the incident.
Of those, 54 percent continued with services such as counseling, court advocacy and sheltering.
“You’re getting people into services very quickly, and hopefully helping them out as early as you can,” Hale said.
The program has been so well-received Sgt. Jennifer Guisto of the Ansonia Police Department is going to train other police departments in BHCare’s coverage area on the program.
Ansonia recently trained officers in the Guilford Police Department, and is scheduled to train officers in three more departments.
