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Law Enforcement Response to Intimate Partner Violence Information Packet

INTRODUCTION

This information packet was created to support Tribal law enforcement’s response to intimate partner violence (IPV). It is also intended to help familiarize advocates, survivors, and the public with key issues in law enforcement’s role in providing victim safety and offender accountability. Often, the intersection of IPV and law enforcement is referred to under the general topic of domestic violence. However, the high rates of IPV, unique dynamics, tactics, and law enforcement response to IPV call for special focus. Correlated issues, i.e., stalking, sexual violence, LGBTQ community, and jurisdiction, among others, are also addressed. 
 

Tribal law enforcement response to “domestics” and IPV, in particular, can be especially challenging in Indian Country given chronic under-funding and under-staffing of police departments, criminal justice systems, housing, and other resources integral to coordinated community responses, comprehensive victim/survivor safety and offender accountability and rehabilitation. Regardless of all the existing deficits, a consistent, effective law enforcement response can and does save lives and works to prevent further harm and trauma.


In practice, it is estimated that nationally, the largest category of calls officers respond to relates to domestic violence (DomesticShelters.org), indicating a need for additional information, resources, and support for law enforcement. 
 

Please see the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center’s Resource Library, offering a range of articles, booklets, special collections, and webinars with toolkits, on supplementary topics. If you have questions, suggestions, or possible additions to this Information Packet, please connect with us through our Contact Us page.
 

We hope you find our resources helpful in your efforts to end violence against Native women and all of our relatives.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  1. Understanding the Dynamics and Tactics of Intimate Partner Violence through the Lens of Indigenous Survivors
    Advocacy for survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) requires an understanding of the dynamics and tactics of IPV. This understanding is also necessary for advocacy for social change to end domestic violence. This webinar provides an overview of the root causes of domestic violence in Indigenous communities. It also explains the dynamics and tactics of IPV from a survivor’s perspective. Highlighted in this webinar is the importance of traditional, cultural practices in strengthening and building our capacity to provide effective, respectful advocacy with our relatives surviving IPV and other forms of violence. 
  2. Violence Against AI/AN Women & Girls - Data Trends
    This offers data trends and a Research Policy Update on State of the Data on Violence Against American Indian and Alaska Native Women and Girls, October 2021 from NCAI. In the United States, violence against AI/AN women has reached devastating levels on Tribal lands, in Alaska Native villages, and in urban centers. At present, the most comprehensive report on the issue of violence against AI/AN women and girls continues to be the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Research Report released in May 2016 linked here.
  3. Violence Against American Indian and Alaska Native Women and Men Fact Sheet
    Statistical fact sheet created by NIWRC from the Violence Against American Indian and Alaska Native Women and Men, Report by the National Institute of Justice (2016) and the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS), Survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2015).
  4. Intimate Partner Violence Triangle
    Intimate partner violence is the purposeful use of a system of multiple, continuous tactics to maintain power and control over another. As described in this Triangle, intentional violence results from and is supported by unnatural, misogynistic, sexist societal and non-indigenous cultural belief systems. This tool describes the types of physical and psychological abuse that may be used to maintain power and control over a current or former intimate partner.
  5. Intimate Partner Violence: Unnatural Power & Control Description
    This brochure provides an overview of intimate partner violence as an institutionalized system of overlapping, continuous, purposeful, violent tactics used to maintain power and control.
  6. Nonviolence Equality Wheel
    The work to end violence against Native women and recreate peaceful, harmonious communities is based on reclaiming our traditional values, belief systems and life ways. As shown in this Wheel, the key values of this life way are compassion, respect, generosity, mutual sharing, humility, contributing/industriousness, courage, love and being spiritually centered. At the center of this tool is Equality, recognizing that everyone has the right to follow their path, power-sharing, not holding power over and is at the center of all healthy relationships.
  7. Respect Wheel: Natural Life-Supporting Power Descriptions
    Our work to end violence against Native women and recreate peaceful, harmonious communities is based on reclaiming our traditional values, belief systems, and lifeways. This brochure provides brief descriptions of the values of compassion, respect, generosity, mutual sharing, humility, contributing/industriousness, courage, love, and being spiritually centered.
  8. Traumatic Brain Injury & Battering
    The severity of physical violence on women and other survivors of intimate partner violence is well-known, yet until recently, awareness of the connection between traumatic brain injury (TBI), IPV and its impact is often lacking within the advocacy, law enforcement and even the medical fields. This has resulted in misdiagnosis, neglect and revictimization. The impact of TBI’s can greatly affect survivors’ ability to recall, communicate and focus which are all factors that can influence their interactions with law enforcement and others. This booklet provides an overview of what TBI is and its impacts, how to screen for TBI, and information for those working with survivors with TBI.
  9. Strangulation in Intimate Partner Violence Fact Sheet
    The Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention has created a Fact Sheet on Strangulation in Intimate Partner Violence. Statistics reported include that between 68-80% of women at highest risk will experience near-fatal strangulation by their partner. The occurrence of strangulation increase the risk for homicide by 750%. Strangulations is the most lethal form of domestic violence: loss of consciousness occurs within 5 to 10 seconds. Death can occur within minutes.
  10. On the Edge of Homicide: Strangulation as a Prelude
    Published in Criminal Justice by the American Bar Association, this article discusses Strangulation in DV and IPV as a prelude to homicide. This article describes the development of initiatives of the domestic violence unit of the San Diego City Attorney’s Office to address strangulation within law enforcement and the criminal justice systems. The initiatives include a study that found most strangulation cases produce minor or no visible injury;many victims, however, suffer internal injuries and have documentable symptoms; strangulation is a gendered crime—virtually all perpetrators are men (299/300); most abusers do not strangle to kill—they strangle to show they can kill; victims often suffer major long-term emotional and physical impacts; and victims of prior attempted strangulation are seven times more likely to become homicide victims. As a result of their work, training curriculums and strangulation laws elevating the seriousness of strangulation were passed in 30 states and 22 Tribes to-date.
  11. Webinar: The Impact of Trauma: A Trauma-Informed Lens and Response
    This International Association of Chiefs of Police webinar discusses how traumatic experiences can impact victim memory, reactions and behavior, and the implications of this for first responders’ and investigators’ interviews and investigations.
  12. Abuse Cannot Be Blamed on Alcoholism or Mental Illness
    Alcohol use and mental illness do not cause intimate partner violence, but are often used to minimize, excuse or deflect responsibility for violence. Alcohol, other drugs and some types of mental illness may increase the frequency and intensity of violence. Making distinctions and appropriately responding to these circumstances is integral to safety and accountability.
  13. Domestic Violence and the LGBTQ Community | additional link
    This fact sheet from NCADV reports that because the majority of the domestic violence awareness movement has focused on heterosexual relationships, members of the LGBTQ community have been largely left out of the movement. However, as cited in this fact sheet, recent research shows that LGBTQ members fall victim to domestic violence at equal or even higher rates compared to their heterosexual counterparts.
  14. 50 Obstacles to Leaving, a.k.a. Why Abuse Victims Stay 
    Domestic violence represents a serious violent crime. It is not codependence, as there is nothing the victim can do to stop the violence, nor is there anything they do to deserve the abuse. Domestic violence victims stay for many valid reasons that must be understood by lawyers, judges, and the legal community if they are to stem the tide of homicides, assaults, and other abusive behavior. This resource provide an overview of many of the barriers to leaving that exist for victims of domestic violence.
  1. Stalking and Intimate Partner Violence Fact Sheet
    This fact sheet provides statistics and key points about the intersections and correlations between stalking and IPV. Stalking often co-occurs with intimate partner violence and can be an indicator of additional significant forms of violence. 
  2. The Intersections of Stalking and Domestic Violence
    Research from the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey shows that nearly 1 in 3 women and about 1 in 6 men in the United States reported being stalked at some point during their lives, and that 43.4% of female victims and 32.4% of male victims were stalked by a current or former intimate partner. While being stalked by anyone can be terrifying, current or former partners often weaponize their familiarity with a victim’s life to make their stalking behaviors more invasive—and more deadly. Additional research shows that stalking increases the risk of intimate partner homicide by three times, and survivors need support and resources to respond to these dangerous behaviors before they escalate.
  3. A Checklist for Law Enforcement Response to Stalking
    This Checklist created by the Department of Justice and Stop Violence Against Women Grants Technical Assistance Project, provides guidance for law enforcement to thoroughly investigate stalking cases, while being sensitive to the needs of victims. Dispatchers and responding and investigating officers, as well as supervisors and agency policymakers, can assess their response to stalking cases—both as individuals and as an entire agency. Fully implementing the Checklist’s practices will provide tools so law enforcement can safely and sensitively intervene to protect victims; hold offenders accountable for their violent, coercive actions; and reduce the likelihood of additional harm to or revictimization of stalking survivors.
  4. Law Enforcement Tips: SLII Behaviors
    Stalking includes a wide range of threatening and disturbing behaviors that can be classified into four categories: Surveillance, Life invasion, Intimidation, and Interference through sabotage or attack (SLII). These categories overlap and build on each other. This two-page document is a checklist of SLII behaviors to assist officers in responding to stalking.
  5. Identifying Stalking on Law Enforcement Calls for Services
    The questions in this guide are meant to help identify stalking in the early stages of police response, during calls for service and investigations of other identified crimes. By helping officers to ask the right questions, it offers guidance in how to effectively charge stalking crimes.
  1. Improving Law Enforcement Response to Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence by Identifying and Preventing Gender Bias
    Recognizing and mitigating instances of bias in the law enforcement response to sexual assault, domestic violence, and other forms of gender-based violence is critical to law enforcement’s ability to protect and serve their communities and enhance public trust. Too often and for too long, gender bias within the justice system has thwarted investigations, caused further harm to victims, and allowed perpetrators to evade accountability and continue to commit crimes. For these reasons, this guidance provides law enforcement agencies (LEAs) with principles with which they can align their policies, practices, and training so that gender bias and other types of bias do not undermine justice in cases involving domestic violence and sexual assault, including those perpetrated by law enforcement officers. Additional resources accompanying this guidance can help LEAs put these principles into practice.
  2. Domestic Violence: Model Policy, Concepts & Issues Paper and Need to Know – International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP)
    The IACP Law Enforcement Policy Center created these documents to address domestic violence from a law enforcement perspective. These include: Model Policy, which provides police agencies with concrete guidance and directives by describing in sequential format the manner in which actions, tasks, and operations are to be performed; Concepts & Issues Paper is designed to provide context and background information to support the Model Policy for a deeper understanding of the topic; Need to Know synthesizes the key points of the topic into a brief, one-page overview. 
  3. 10 Things to Know: Enhancing Law Enforcement Response to Domestic and Sexual Violence
    This one-page document highlights key points to improve the law enforcement response to domestic violence and sexual violence.
  4. Police Response to Violence Against Women
    The IACP's Police Response to Violence Against Women library includes many useful tools, resources, and policies to assist law enforcement in responding effectively to human trafficking, sexual assault, domestic violence and sexual violence by police officers, stalking, strangulation, domestic violence, and other crimes of intimate partner violence.
  5. Accounting for Risk and Danger Practice Checklists: Coordinating Risk Assessment in Domestic Violence Cases
    Identifying and documenting risk factors for serious or lethal intimate partner violence should be incorporated into each step of the criminal justice intervention. A community’s coordinating council or task force can spearhead an examination of current practices to uncover gaps that exist in identifying, documenting, and transmitting risk information throughout the criminal justice intervention. To assist such an assessment, the Battered Women’s Justice Project has developed this Accounting for Risk and Danger Practice Checklists for each practitioner in the intervention process. The checklists can help a jurisdiction ensure that its criminal justice response identifies and addresses potential risks to victims of IPV.
  6. Danger Assessment (2019)
    The Danger Assessment was originally developed by Jacqueline Campbell (1986) with consultation and support from battered women, shelter workers, law enforcement officials, and other clinical experts on battering. This one-page assessment was updated in 2019 for use by advocates and others doing lethality assessments with survivors. Some of the risk factors women are asked about are whether their partner owns a gun, their partner’s employment status, whether he has ever threatened to kill the woman, etc. 
  7. Balancing the Scales of Justice Webinar Series
    The International Association of Chiefs of Police’s “Balancing the Scales of Justice” webinar series was developed as part of the Enhancing Community Trust: Proactive Approaches to Domestic and Sexual Violence program funded by the Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women. This webinar series outlines what gender bias is, its impacts on domestic and sexual violence investigations, and strategies for leaders to identify and address it within their agencies.
  8. Duluth Police Department 310 Policy Manual – Domestic Abuse
    This manual defines the Department's procedures in the initial investigation and response to domestic abuse incidents and is in compliance with Minnesota Statutes pertaining to police authority and responsibilities in domestic abuse cases. It provides a good example of how local police departments can implement policies to improve the investigation and response to domestic violence cases. 
  9. Proactive Police Response to Domestic – Related Repeat Calls for Service
    The COPS Office funded the Danville (Virginia) Police Department’s efforts to develop a process for responding to domestic violence calls as part of “Stratified Policing,” a general proactive crime reduction strategy. The goal is to intervene early on domestic-related repeat calls, before they become major incidents. This allows more law enforcement resources available to focus on proactively addressing situations to prevent escalation of domestic violence.
  10. Law Enforcement Experience Report – Domestic violence survivors’ survey regarding interaction with law enforcement
    This report covers the survey conducted between March and May 2021, by the National Domestic Violence Hotline (The Hotline), on the experiences survivors impacted by intimate partner violence or sexual assault have had with members of law enforcement. The survey, conducted on The Hotline’s chat line and website, collected both qualitative and quantitative data. Of the roughly 1,500 who responded, approximately 82% had contacted the police, while 12% had not. Of those who did call the police, more than twice the number (39%) actually felt less safe after calling, compared to 20% who felt safer.
  11. Partnering for Justice: Role of Advocates Within Law Enforcement Response webinar
    This webinar focuses on basic best practices for advocates and domestic violence programs working with Tribal law enforcement in Indian Country. Building knowledge and networking within these systems is essential to increasing the safety of Native women and their children and other relatives experiencing intimate partner violence. This webinar will also provide steppingstones and basic foundations to working with relatives who are navigating through law enforcement systems in our communities and how we as advocates can help.
  12. Law Enforcement Guide: Responding to Stalking 
    This guide provides important information on stalking for law enforcement. In one study, female victims in more than 75% of attempted and completed intimate partner homicides had been stalked by the same offender in the year prior to the attack.  The most common use of the criminal justice system prior to the (completed or attempted) homicide was reported partner stalking. Research and practice show that victims are unlikely to use the words ‘stalking’ or ‘harassment’ when talking about their situation and may not know their experiences amount to stalking victimization; instead of asking victims if they are being stalked, officers should ask specific questions about stalking behaviors. Similarly, calls for service are often not initially identified as ‘stalking calls’ and so responding officers must be able to identify stalking on calls for service regardless of how the call is initially coded or dispatched. 
  13. Walking A Tightrope: Balancing Victim Privacy and Offender Accountability in Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prosecutions Part I. An Overview of the Importance of Confidentiality and Privilege
    This Strategies article is Part I of a two-part series addressing two types of victim privacy laws – confidentiality and privilege. Part I provides an overview of confidentiality laws in order to assist prosecutors in effectively balancing offender accountability with the safety needs and expectations of victims during criminal investigations and prosecutions.
  14. Policing and the LGBTQ community
    Law enforcement’s treatment of the LGBTQ community has historically been marked by bias and discrimination, often sanctioned by the state.Today, homophobia and transphobia remain rampant in most, if not all, law enforcement agencies. LGBTQ people of color, transgender women of color, and non-binary people face compounding discrimination due to race, gender, and gender identity. This is an overview of common issues faced by members of the LGBTQ community in interactions with law enforcement. 
  15. Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons: Law Enforcement & Prevention
    This is an extensive, comprehensive collection of articles in the January 2021 issue of the Department of Justice Journal of Federal Law And Practice on MMIP and law enforcement. See pages 137 – 148 for Enhancing Law Enforcement Response to Missing Person Cases in Tribal Communities
  1. What Federal Rights Do Crime Victims Have?
    Two federal statutes describe the federal government’s responsibilities to crime victims. The Victims’ Rights and Restitution Act (VRRA) (34 U.S.C. § 20141) describes the services the federal government is required to provide to victims of federal crime. The Crime Victims’ Rights Act (CVRA) (18 U.S.C. § 3771) sets forth the rights that a person has as a victim of crime. 
  2. Victim Rights in Indian Country
    For centuries, tribal justice systems have emphasized the importance of a victim centered approach. For many tribes healing and safety for victims has been and continues to be as important or even more important than offender accountability. As tribes build tribal justice system capacity to timely and effectively respond to incidents of domestic violence and sexual assault, it is important that the tribal justice system consider traditional notions of justice and the inclusion of victims’ rights. 
  3. Bill of Rights for Survivors of DV & Sexual Assault 
    This Bill of Rights was created in the early 2000’s by the South Dakota Coalition Ending Domestic & Sexual Violence membership to highlight aspirational rights for survivors, including survivors in shelter, to help in their healing and to help them take back their own agency in their lives.
  4. Police Liability
    Across the country courts are finding that, under certain circumstances, law enforcement officials and their departments can be held liable for failing to provide effective intervention and protection for victims of domestic violence. In several cases the failure to do so has resulted in awards of millions of dollars. This four-page article was written by the West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
  5. $650,000 Settlement in Lawsuit Based on 1868 Treaty
    In a historic case, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled that Lavetta Elk, Oglala Lakota, was entitled to more than $590,000 in damages under the Ft. Laramie Treaty of 1868 that requires the government to reimburse Sioux tribal members who are injured by “any wrong” done by “bad men among the whites, or among other people subject to the authority of the United States.” Elk was one of many young women who reported to officials that they had been assaulted by recruiters after expressing interest in the military.

 

  1. HOME SWEET HOME? Casting New Light on Domestics by Sgt. T. S. Duncan
    Having knowledge of domestic violence and acting on it are not the same thing. There is a real danger of becoming complacent with domestic violence cases because so many of them result in no substantial police action. The information contained here can allow every officer to handle domestic violence calls in a safer manner by modifying their tactics to meet the real threats. 
  2. Making It Safer: A Study of Law Enforcement Fatalities Between 2010 -2016 – COPS, US DOJ
    This project was developed to enhance the safety of law enforcement officers across the United States by providing the most up-to-date analysis of fatality trends in law enforcement as it relates to officers responding to service calls and conducting self-initiated activities such as traffic stops. The analysis increases awareness of the dangers posed by certain types of incidents and provides insight into the commonalities among law enforcement fatalities. This information can be shared to enact change, alter training and reduce the number of fatalities and injuries in the profession.
  3. FBI Crime Data Law Enforcement Officers Killed in the Line of Duty Statistics for 2021
    According to statistics reported to the FBI, 129 law enforcement officers were killed in line-of-duty incidents in 2021. Of these, 73 died as a result of felonious acts and 56 in accidents. Comprehensive data tables about these events and brief narratives describing the fatal attacks are available on the Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted portion of the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer at https://crime-data-explorer.app.cloud.gov/pages/le/leoka.
  4. Officer Safety Considerations for Domestic Violence Calls – IACP
    This webinar examines the complexities and challenges that may be faced by officers when interacting with offenders, victims, and witnesses. It also identifies tactics and protocols for increasing officer, victim, and civilian safety, and presents quantitative research and case studies to demonstrate the possible dangers of responding to and managing on-scene investigations of domestic violence calls.
  1. 3B Training Memo – Gone on Arrival (GOA) Cases
    From Praxis International’s The Blueprint for Safety series (Chapter 3 appendices – Domestic Violence), this memo describes incidents where the suspect leaves before officers arrive, and actions responding officers should then take to ensure victim safety.
  2. Report Review Checklists
    From the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the checklist includes important report elements that officers should address for domestic violence, non-lethal strangulation, protection order violations, sexual assault and stalking crimes.
  3. When The Victim Doesn’t Speak Out
    This article briefly describes how photos can be used to support successful prosecutions of domestic violence cases when there is no victim testimony.   
  4. 3J Training Memo – How a Prosecutor Reads a Police Report
    Praxis International adapted this brief from Domestic Violence: The Law Enforcement Response, a training curriculum from The Domestic Abuse Intervention Project, to highlight those parts of officers’ reports that are integral to successful prosecution.
  5. Uncovering Sexual Assault in Domestic Violence Calls: An Improved Law Enforcement Response to Assess for Sexual Violence, Build an Evidence Based Case and Reduce Gender Bias Webinar
    This webinar explains how law enforcement can evolve from not properly addressing intimate partner sexual violence  in domestic violence situations to a practical, well-trained response. Supplementary materials offer additional information on how to sensitively assess for sexual violence and build an evidence-based case through investigation and prosecution. There are also materials to help develop policies, protocols, and training, as well as reducing gender bias in policing.
  6. Advocate Lessons: How Law Enforcement Responds to and Investigates Domestic Violence Cases
    Part 2 of the Battered Women's Justice Project's Coordinated Community Response Problem-Solving Series is a webinar exploring the roles and responsibilities of law enforcement in their initial response to domestic violence cases.
  7. LGBTQ DV Targeted Recommendation: Ensure that all Referrals to 911 and Law Enforcement are Informed, Individual, and Based on a Reasonable Expectation of Benefit in the Specific Situation -National LGBTQ DV Capacity Building Learning Center
    This recommendation highlights the historic challenges that domestic violence survivors, and especially diverse LGBTQ survivors, experience with law enforcement. This recommendation outlines considerations for mainstream and culturally specific organizations regarding their referrals to law enforcement, given this history of harm.
  8. Best Practices and Help-Seeking Obstacles: Advocacy and Law Enforcement - Sherry Hamby; Battered Women's Justice Project (BWJP)
    This webinar presents findings from a national study on domestic violence and provides information on incident reporting and police and advocate responses in various situations. The presenter reviews best practices for arrest, victim/perpetrator separation, and safety planning.
  9. Elements of Self-Defense
    This one-page handout lists key points for officers to determine if a survivor acted in self-defense. This determination is integral in identifying the predominant aggressor and avoiding the inappropriate arrest of survivors.
  10. Self-Defense Determination
    This resource includes an excerpt from the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office Patrol Policies for responding to domestic abuse-related calls and focuses on how to make self-defense determinations. 
  11. Strangulation and Suffocation in Indian Country
    Strangulation has been identified as one of the most lethal forms of domestic violence and sexual assault. This session will provide an in-depth examination of the mechanics of strangulation and suffocation from a legal and law enforcement perspective in Indian country.
  12. "Just Record It!" The Rights and Wrongs of Stalking and Domestic Violence Documentation
    DomesticShelters.org. 8 out of 10 domestic violence cases are dismissed due to a lack of evidence and victims being too scared to testify. According to a 2017 Prosecutor's Report, Attorneys and well-intending people tell victims to “document everything,” but not everything is admissible as evidence. Much of what is collected and documented does not meet the criteria as evidence and won’t be allowed in court. Sheri Kurdakul of VictimsVoice provides the questions to ask and reasons for asking.
  1. The Forensic Experiential Trauma Interview (FETI), Russell Strand, US Army Military Police School
    Written by and for law enforcement, this article addresses interviewing when a person is stressed or traumatized. Inconsistent statements are not only the norm, but sometimes strong evidence that the memory was encoded in the context of severe stress and trauma. What many in the criminal justice field have been educated to believe people do when they lie (e.g., changes in body language, affect, ah-filled pauses, lack of eye contact, etc.) actually occur naturally when human beings are highly stressed or traumatized. Science of memory and psychological trauma must be applied to interview approaches and techniques.
  2. Successful Trauma-Informed Victim Interviewing 
    This International Association of Chiefs of Police document demonstrates how trauma-informed interview techniques can be used to reframe interview questions. Rather than frame questions in a manner that could be perceived as victim blaming, questions can be asked in a manner that helps victims retrieve memories from a traumatic event and assists law enforcement in gathering more information while making the victim feel more supported.
  3. 3K Training Memo – Victim Engagement and the Law Enforcement Response to Domestic Violence
    This was created as part of Praxis International’s The Blueprint for Safety series (Chapter 3 appendices – Law Enforcement). This memo addresses why victim engagement is important and what is involved.
  4. Model Policy for Law Enforcement on Communicating with People who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing – U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division
    This is a model policy by the U.S. DOJ that law enforcement agencies can modify as appropriate. It examples  how law enforcement officers should communicate with people who have hearing difficulties.
  1. What Not to Consider When Establishing Probable Cause
    This is a one-page list from Domestic Violence: The Law Enforcement Response by Law Enforcement Training Center & Duluth Domestic Violence Abuse Intervention Project to assist officers in determining probable cause to make an arrest in domestic violence cases by clarifying what not to consider. 
  2. Predominant Aggressor Determination Webinar Recording – IACP
    This webinar is presented by Sergeant Denise Jones, Clark County Sheriff’s Office, and Corporal Dave Thomas (retired), Montgomery County Police Department, IACP Program Manager. This webinar assists law enforcement officers in determining the predominant aggressor in domestic violence cases. They discuss what to look and listen for on domestic violence calls in the context of the tactics and dynamics of intimate partner violence rather than just the incident officers are called to. Myths and stereotypes influencing investigations, consideration of related crimes such as trafficking and sexual assault, distinguishing self-defense from crime, considerations with LGBTQ+ survivors, and collaboration with advocates are highlighted.
  3. 3C Training Memo – Making the Arrest Decision
    This memo is from Praxis International’s The Blueprint for Safety series, (Chapter 3 appendices – Law Enforcement). It discusses how to establish probable cause and how to determine the predominant aggressor and a victim using self- defense.
  4. Identifying the Predominant Aggressor and Evaluating Lethality
    This webinar by the International Association of Chiefs of Police and Aequitas emphasizes the importance of contextual analysis in evaluating criminal responsibility at the arrest, charging, pre-trial, and sentencing phases. This helps ensure the dynamics of domestic violence are properly factored into decisions at each stage of the juridical criminal process and enhances the quality of justice for victims of abuse. It also discusses the importance of danger assessments and best practices in lethality evaluation. 
  5. Preferred Officer Options When Both Parties Use Violence
    This is a one-page graphic that assists officers in deciding who to arrest when both persons use violence.
  6. “She hit me too” Identifying the Primary Aggressor: A Prosecutor‘s Perspective
    This is an article written by Gael Strack in August of 2000 and updated in January of 2001. It gives an account of domestic violence in California and in San Diego, paying specific attention to the rising proportion of female arrests. It recommends specialized training for identifying the primary aggressor in cases of domestic violence and explains the signs, symptoms, and significance of attempted strangulation cases, how to distinguish between offensive and defensive injuries, how to gather evidence, how to e-report, and how to conduct follow-up investigations.

  1. Model Law Enforcement Policy: Serving and Enforcing Protection Orders & Seizing Firearms in Domestic Violence Cases - National Center on Full Faith and Credit
    The purpose of the Model Law Enforcement Policy is to provide policies and standard operating procedures for four specific areas that may be encountered by a law enforcement agency: service of process/notice to respondents of protection orders; the enforcement of protection orders that were issued by a court of another State, Indian Tribe, or U.S. territory or possession; the seizure of firearms from persons who are prohibited from possessing firearms pursuant to a protection order, State law, or Federal law; the storage and return of seized firearms; and law enforcement officers who are subject to protection orders or who have been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.

  2. Enforcing Domestic Violence Firearm Prohibitions: A Report on Promising Practices
    This report highlights promising practices currently employed around the United States and in tribal jurisdictions that represent innovative approaches to enforcing domestic violence firearm prohibitions. It also provides brief descriptions of programs that are located primarily in law enforcement agencies, prosecutors’ offices, courts, and probation departments. 

  3. OVW Grantee Firearms Webinar Series: Intersection of Domestic Violence And Firearms Part 2/3
    This webinar, Intersection of Domestic Violence and Firearms, highlights the intersection of domestic violence and gun violence. The presenters explore the prevalence and risk of firearm violence to victims of domestic violence as well as interventions that reduce intimate partner homicide.

  1. Full Faith and Credit, Protection Orders and Safety for Native Families
    This NIWRC brochure explains full faith and credit, and enforcement of protection orders within Indian Country.
  2. Tribal Protection Order Resources
    This brief document is an introduction to tribal protection orders and the website is intended to serve as an online resource pertaining to drafting and enforcing tribal protection orders. 
    1. Federal: Full Faith and Credit
      The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA 2013) requires all Tribes, territories, and States to recognize and enforce protection orders from any other jurisdiction. This document describes Tribal Court authority, defines protection orders and full faith and credit, explains that mutual protection orders are not enforceable according to this law, that registration of pos are not required to be registered and provides ta notice to defendants about notification and limits of internet publication or registration information.
    2. Tribal: Full Faith and Credit
      This page provides an overview of how tribal nations are working to ensure the seamless enforcement of protection orders both inside and outside Indian country. It also provides examples of tribal legislation regarding full faith and credit.
    3. State Laws: Full Faith and Credit
      This page provides information about state laws that require the enforcement of foreign (state and tribal) protection orders. It includes links to State and Territorial Full Faith and Credit Statutes, State and Territorial Protection Order Registry Statutes and the Uniform Interstate Enforcement of Domestic Violence Protection Orders Act (2002).
    4. Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction
      As contained within the Violence Against Women Act, Section 904 specifically addresses the tribal exercise of Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction over non-Indians to address the jurisdictional gap created by Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, 435 U.S. 191 (1978). VAWA 2013 amended the Indian Civil Rights Act. The purpose of Section 904 is to decrease the incidence of crimes of domestic violence in Indian Country, to strengthen tribal sovereignty and to ensure that perpetrators of domestic violence are held accountable in tribal courts for their crimes of domestic violence, violations of protection orders and dating violence that have occurred in Indian Country. 

  3. Protecting Victims of Domestic Violence: A Law Enforcement Officer's Guide to Enforcing Protection Orders Nationwide - Battered Women's Justice Project (BWJP)
    This guide for law enforcement provides guidance on the enforcement of protection orders pursuant to the full faith and credit provision of the Violence Against Women Act, which requires law enforcement officers to enforce valid orders across the boundaries of States, Tribes, and territories.

  1. Preventing Officer-Involved Domestic Violence – DOJ October 2020 | Volume 13 | Issue 10
    In 2003, with support from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) developed a model policy for domestic violence committed by police officers. The model policy includes components on prevention and training, early warning and intervention, incident response protocols, victim safety and protection, and post-incident administrative and criminal decisions.
  2. Domestic Violence by Police Officers Model Policy – International Association of Chiefs of Police 
    This is a model policy addressing instances of officers who commit domestic violence, written by the IACP.
  3. The Highly Trained Batterer: Prevention, Investigation and Prosecution of Officer-Involved Domestic Violence; Strategies – The Prosecutors’ Newsletter on Violence Against Women, Aequitas
    This article discusses the dynamics and tactics commonly encountered in officer-involved domestic violence; emphasizes the importance of departmental policies and protocols for prevention of, and response to, violence in the law enforcement family; explains the need for a coordinated, yet “firewalled” internal investigation that will not compromise the criminal prosecution of the offender; and suggests strategies for investigation and prosecution of officer-involved domestic violence.
  1. Promising Special Considerations for Tribal Law Enforcement
    This is a brief compilation by NIWRC of issues unique to law enforcement in Indian country and their response to intimate partner violence. 
  2. Promising Practices in Tribal Community Policing
    Tribal law enforcement prioritizes being there for the people they serve through standard policing functions, community events, and day to day interpersonal interactions. Community policing is not a program or activity in Indian country; rather, it is a guiding philosophy and way of life. In 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) and the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) partnered to explore what community policing looks like in Indian country and what specific strategies work well for tribal law enforcement. 
  3. Cross Deputization in Indian Country 
    This guide examines the issue of cross-deputization, its jurisdictional and legal limits, and how it has been implemented in various law enforcement agencies in Indian country throughout the United States. This publication offers some of practices, sample documents and agreements, that have proven most successful as agencies have moved to cross-commissioning officers. 
  4. Improving Safety in Indian Country – IACP Summit 2001
    The IACP Summit worked with its Indian Country Law Enforcement Section, the Office of Tribal Justice, the Office of Justice Programs and all other relevant U.S. Department of Justice agencies, as well as the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to develop key recommendations to improve safety in Indian Country. Recommendations address six issue areas:
    1. Jurisdictional Issues in Indian Country
    2. Resources for Indian Country Law Enforcement
    3. Justice and Program Agencies
    4. Training and Education for Indian Country Law Enforcement, Justice and Program Agencies Improving Safety in Indian Country
    5. Coordination and Cooperation among Indian Country Law Enforcement, Justice and Program Agencies
    6. Response to Victims of Crime in Indian Country
    7. Prevention Strategies to Reduce Crime
  5. VAWA 2022: Special Tribal Criminal Jurisdiction
    This is the National Congress of American Indians  overview of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) 2013 and 2022 regarding tribal jurisdiction over non-Indians. The historic provision within VAWA 2013 formally recognized the inherent power of tribes to exercise special domestic violence criminal jurisdiction  over both Indians and non-Indians who commit crimes of domestic violence or dating violence or violate certain protection orders in Indian Country. In 2022, Congress amended this provision to recognize “special Tribal criminal jurisdiction”  over an expanded list of “covered crimes” that includes, in addition to the VAWA 2013 crimes, assault of Tribal justice personnel, child violence, obstruction of justice, sexual violence, sex trafficking, and stalking.
  6. International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Webinar Series:
    1. 1st Century Communication Strategies to Support Community and Police Dialogue
      This webinar, Promising Practices in Tribal Community Policing, discusses ways to build relationships and create dialogues with community members.
    2. Hiring in the Spirit of Service and Tribal Tradition
      Panelists, Darren Cruzan, Director, BIA Office of Justice Services, Commander Andrea Merill of Village Officer Safety Program, Alaska State Trooper, Chief of Police David Rogers, Nez Perce Tribal Police Department and Matt Lysakowski, Senior Advisor for Tribal Affairs, Department of Justice discuss the challenges of recruiting, hiring and retaining police officers, and the promising practices they’ve developed to meet those challenges. Each speakers from the unique tribal perspectives and geographical areas they work and live in.
    3. Information Sharing: Working with Tribal, Local, State, and Federal Partners to Improve Communication and Data Sharing
      Panelists, Chief of Police Bill Denke of the Sycuan Tribal Police Department, Patrick Melvin, Chief of Police of the Slat River Tribal Police Department and CJIS Tribal Liaisons Kristi Knight and Kimberly Lough of the FBI discuss Tribal law enforcement access to federal, state and local justice information systems. Specific to California tribes.  Topics include the historical roadblocks to tribal access to the information systems and best practices to overcome them, i.e., the Intertribal Council of Arizona, the Tribal Law Enforcement Consortium of Arizona, various national info sharing systems with tribal liaisons, a Tribal Task Force and the Tribal Engagement Program.
    4. Strategies for Improving Cultural Awareness for Law Enforcement in and Around Indian Country
      This webinar focuses on strategies for improving tribal and state law enforcement agencies collaboration through cultural awareness. Chief of Police Robert Bryant of the Penobscott Nation Police Department and Debra Gee, General Counsel and Executive Officer of the Chickasaw Nation Tribal Court discuss practices they use to bring cultural awareness to their police departments and other area agencies. Topics include utilizing tribe specific symbols with community input, focus on relationship building with communities and area agencies, UTILIZING cross-commissioning, MOUs, crime specific partnerships like disaster preparedness, drug tasks forces and environmental resource protection.