Protocols
2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 Justice and Courage Project
Protocol Committee Meeting
May 14, 2003 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Minutes
Location: Bay Area Legal Aid, 50 Fell Street, San Francisco.
In Attendance:
Rachel Kilshaw, San Francisco Police Dept., Domestic Violence Response Unit
Rosario Navarrette, DOSW, Deputy Director
Ken Theisen, Bay Area Legal Aid
Susan Fahey, San Francisco Sheriff’s Department
Sharon Woo, San Francisco District Attorney’s Office
Sergio Calizo, San Francisco Adult Probation Department
Oli Sadler, Dept. of Telecommunications & Information Services
Catherine Mercado, DOSW, Intern
Justine McGonagle, DOSW, Justice and Courage Coordinator
Introductions/Roll Call:
The meeting was called to order and facilitated by Rachel Kilshaw. Sergio Calizo took the minutes of this meeting.
Minutes:
The minutes of the April 9, 2003, meeting were reviewed and approved.
Agenda:
Agenda of May 14, 2003, meeting was approved.
Presentation:
Barbara Kempster, Emergency Communication Department (ECD), was not available to continue with ECD presentation. Rachel Kilshaw, SFPD Acting Lieutenant, Domestic Violence Response Unit, provided a detailed presentation of the SFPD domestic violence protocols and practices on handling domestic violence calls and cases. Inspector Kilshaw provided the Committee with copies of the General Order for Domestic Violence as well as the forms SFPD uses in handling domestic violence cases, including Chronological Report of Investigation, Investigators’ Daily Case Assignment Sheet, Weekend and Weekday On-Call Crews, Incident Report Changes, Walk In Cases Review Sheet, Field Arrest Card (felony and misdemeanor cases), Domestic Violence Officer’s Observations, Follow Up
Phone Call to Victims, Incident Report Log for Probation Department, State Parole and District Attorney’s Office, Work-Up Assignments, Clearance and Assignment Issues, Monthly Report of Domestic Violence-Related Calls for Assistance, DVRU Monthly Report Statistics, Monthly DV Reporting Stats by District, DVRU Daily and Monthly Statistics for Domestic Violence Incident Reports.
SFPD files Applications for Emergency Protective Order (EPO). The officer must get approval from the Sargeant to apply for an EPO. The officer calls the on-duty Judge. The on-duty Judge responds to the officer. Ken Theisen inquired whether judges are usually responsive to the officer. Insp. Kilshaw stated that judges usually call back, but in the last two weeks there were problems getting returned calls back from judges, which has not been the norm. SFPD Protocol requires all efforts be made to serve EPOs. If EPO is not served, the Sergeant will assign the task to the next watch until served or expired. The EPO is faxed to the ID Bureau by the end of the officer’s watch whether or not it has been served. If it has expired, it is forwarded to the SFPD Legal Unit and to the Court. SFPD can query past DV cases. Query can be done in patrol vehicles but take a lot of time.
If the perpetrator is arrested, a Field Arrest Card, which is the housing card for the jail, is completed. Susan Fahey of the SF Sheriff’s Department stated that this card is in the process of being revised. To identify DV cases, SFPD puts the word “DV” after the charges. Once an arrest is made, SFPD makes a Narrative Incident Report Form 48A and 480B is the supplement DV checklist which is also required on every DV case. This report is submitted to the Sergeant and to the Lieutenant for approval. Only arrest reports are faxed to Own Recognizance (Or) and to DVRU. Copies of the arrest report are then faxed or sent to the OR Project (Own Recognizance) and to DVRU. A misdemeanor citation to appear within 40 days is issued on are occasions in DV cases. Felony=Suspect booked.
Once DVRU receives the report, the assignment/inspector reviews the report, and assigns the case to individual inspectors based on their workload. Language between the assigned inspector and the perpetrator/reportee/victim is not a problem, except for one language/dialect. Interpreters are available by telephone through a service, nationwide.
For non-arrest cases, the assignment/inspector reads the report and assigns the case for a warrant work-up on serious cases. If the suspect is on probation, copy of the report is given to the Probation Department. Case assignments are rotated to avoid burn-out among inspectors.
SFPD gets between 20-25 arrest and non-arrest cases daily.
For non-assigned cases, SFPD makes a call to victims, and requests victims to come to DVRU, for follow-up. If the victim does not want to come to DVRU, he/she will be asked to contact the Family Violence Project or Woman Inc. or referred to other resources such as W.O.M.A.N Inc. In addition all DV cases are coded at the station level to have a copy of the report go to the Family Violence Project.
All of the arrest and non-arrest cases are logged in the daily and monthly statistic forms.
DVRU has two assignment/inspectors, two daily inspectors, two on-call inspectors on weekdays, and one night inspector (4PM – 2AM). Assistant District Attorney Sharon Woo expressed her concern on the difficulty of her staff to do a follow up on cases assigned or handled by the night inspector.
The inspector checks new and past cases of the suspect. If the suspect has an open case, the new case will be assigned to the inspector handling the open case. If the assignment/inspector notices that the suspect has numerous cases and the suspect could be charged with stalking, the District Attorney’s Office is notified accordingly.
Due to time limitations, Inspector Rachel Kilshaw’s presentation will be continued to the next meeting. At that time, her presentation will focus on the role of the domestic violence inspector and the SFPD General Order.
Other Reports:
Sergio Calizo of SF Adult Probation reported that the draft of the revised Domestic Violence Unit Protocols of the San Francisco Adult Probation Department has been completed and has been submitted to the Chief Adult Probation Officer for review and approval.
Next Meeting:
Next meeting will be on June 11, 2003, at 10:30 AM-12:00 noon, at 50 Fell St., San Francisco.
Emergency Communication Department will complete their presentation followed by SFPD continuing its.
