*** Press Release ***

For Immediate Release

July 1, 2009

Contact: Laura Marshall

(415) 252-2578

Laura.Marshall@sfgov.org

San Francisco Wins Achievement Award for

Criminal Justice Training on Domestic Violence

(San Francisco, CA) Every year in San Francisco, 911 dispatchers field 6,000 domestic violence calls, and the Police Department's Domestic Violence Response Unit receives 4,500 cases. The City has a system to respond to domestic violence, but how well is that system linked? The Department on the Status of Women (Department) asked this very question after the October 2000 murder of Claire Joyce Tempongko, leading to the creation of the Justice and Courage Oversight Panel. The Panel found that there were serious gaps within the criminal justice system, gaps the Department, criminal justice agencies, and community advocates have been working to fill ever since – with award-winning results.

Each year, the National Association of Counties (NACo) recognizes counties across the country for unique and innovative programs, and this month NACo announced that San Francisco County is the recipient of a 2009 Achievement Award for the Domestic Violence Response Cross-Training Institute (Institute).

In 2006, the Department received funding from the Blue Shield of California Foundation to create a new type of training, one that didn't just train individuals, but rather one that helped fix the systemic problems plaguing the City's response to domestic violence. The result was the Institute.

The Institute is an innovation because it brings police officers, 911 dispatchers, probation officers, assistant district attorneys, and deputy sheriffs, as well as their supervisors, together to learn about the dynamics of domestic violence from experienced community trainers, and to learn about the intersection of their job roles from one another. Though personnel from each of these agencies interact with the same victims and perpetrators, they rarely interact with one another, leading to systemic gaps, miscommunication, and increased risk for domestic violence victims. One probation officer remarked: I had been to a cross-training' before but I sat with others from my department. The representation from other departments at my table provided me with valuable information and perspectives.

Not only is the Institute a valuable training tool for individuals, it also helps the criminal justice system as a whole improve services, protect victims, and hold batterers accountable. In a training session in the spring of 2008, a 20-year veteran of the police department indicated he had never until that day met a probation officer face-to-face. The Institute design builds bridges between departments, allowing opportunities for learning, networking, and systems change. The Institute trained over 430 criminal justice personnel during 2007 and 2008, and it has undoubtedly increased the safety of countless survivors of domestic violence.

Learn more about the Department on the Status of Women's ongoing efforts to create a seamless criminal justice response to domestic violence through the Justice and Courage Oversight Panel, as well as other work related to women's human rights at www.dosw. Learn more about NACo at www.naco.org.

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