Protocols
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Protocol Committee Minutes
Date: September 08, 2004
Time: 1:30P.M. - 3:30P.M.
Location: Bay Area Legal Aid, 50 Fell St., SF CA 94102
Members Present:
Daisy Anarchy, Community Member
Captain Marsha Ashe, SFPD
Sergio Calizo, APD
Trish Erwin, Community Member
Barbara Brooten Job, Oversight Panel
Justine McGonagle, DOSW
Donna Medley, OCC
Rosario Navarrette, DOSW
Sally Piña, SF Superior Court
Ken Theisen, Bay Area Legal Aid
Call to Order
Barbara Brooten Job called the meeting to order at 1:40p.m.
Introductions
Introductions were conducted.
Meeting Agenda for Sept 8, 2004
Item 5, APD protocol recommendations, was put over until the next meeting. The meeting agenda was adopted as revised.
Approval of Minutes – August 11, 2004
The following revisions were made to minutes:
Pg. 2, Recorder for the Next Meeting, Sally Peña corrected to Sally Piña
Pg. 2, Other Issues/Comments, second par., second sentence revised to read “Although they believed there was a need for a specific address for the victim…”
Pg. 2, New Business, the first sentence was corrected to read, “The next Family Violence Council meeting will be held…”
Pg. 2, New Business, third par. corrected to read, “September 15 is the annual Elder Abuse Awareness Day Rally.”
The August 11, 2004 minutes were approved as amended.
Recorder for Next Meeting
Rosario Navarrette will take minutes for the next Protocol meeting on October 6, 2004.
Agenda Item Discussions:
The committee discussed whether the APD Letter to Victim (agenda item 5B) should include a statement that information given to Probation Officers (PO) is not confidential. Sergio spoke with the Chief PO about adding such a statement and he seemed reluctant, but did not say no. There was a discussion on the pros and cons of including such a statement. The committee agreed a statement should be on the letter and agreed to the following wording:
Your safety is our primary concern. If you inform us of a probation violation, we may, as Officers of the Court, report these violations of probation to the Court. Should you wish to discuss your concerns confidentially, the attached Resource List may provide additional resources.
Sergio will speak with the Chief PO to see if he approves of this statement being added to the letter.
If so, it will be placed at the bottom of the form under the statement indicating whom the PO is on the case. Barbara asked Sergio to add into the probation protocols the fact that probation will report violators to court.
Currently the Letter to Victim is in English and Spanish. The committee thought the letter should
be translated into Chinese and perhaps Filipino as well. Sergio will ask a PO who speaks
Filipino and a PO who speaks Chinese if they could translate the letter into Filipino and Chinese. Sergio will report back at the next meeting.
Sergio reported that probation is not always informed when there is a modification to a Stay Away order (S/A). Sally Piña suggested part of the problem could be that the modification form used to modify a S/A is only a 4-part form, with no copy provided to APD. Sergio also mentioned that original S/A’s are sometimes modified on their face without the court using the modification form. The committee is not sure how modifications to S/A’s appear in CLETS when a S/A is modified without using the modification form. The committee was not sure how this impacts the cop on the street trying to obtain the most recent information.
The committee discussed problems with ‘no harass’ orders issued by the Court. The committee is not sure how those orders show up in CLETS as a modification to a previous S/A. Trish Erwin suggested the committee should indicate the issues it has identified regarding S/A’s and present them to the Court. Barbara thought the issues about S/A orders should go to the S/A Committee since there are questions and concerns that may be outside the scope of the Protocol Committee. Also, there appear to be some training issues with the police and judges regarding issuing modifications and ‘no harass’ orders.
The committee discussed the APD draft recommendation, Reference # P11.
The recommendation was to continue and enhance the APD Domestic Violence (DV) Unit Victim Impact Project. Rosario Navarrette said that the Justice and Courage Project would question this recommendation in light of what might appear to be a duplication of efforts with other agencies, current budget problems and the fact that APD already has uncovered/banked caseloads. Sergio indicated that the Victim Impact Project would most likely continue whether or not APD received funding to enhance the program. In light of this, the committee agreed that rather than recommend
the Victim Impact Project be funded and enhanced, it would recommend a two (2) pronged
approach:
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APD be given additional PO positions for the DV unit so that the unit, as a whole, is enhanced, and; DV PO’s carry ‘standard’ caseloads, with what constitutes a ‘standard’ caseload to be determined.
The committee carried Agenda item #6 over to the next meeting.
Next Meeting Issues
- APD Letter to Victim – Recommendation P11
- APD protocol recommendations
- Update on Recommendation PC10 – Sheriff Department’s Tarasoff (Warning/Duty to Warn) Policy
- S/A Order Ad Hoc Committee Update
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be on October 6, 2004 at the Mission Police Department at 17th Street and Mission. The meeting will be from 1:30PM to 3:30PM.
Meeting Adjourned
The meeting was adjourned at 3:30PM.
