Family Violence Council Minutes

August 30, 2017

3:00- 5:00 pm

400 McAllister, Room 617

San Francisco, CA, 94102

Present:

Chief of Adult Probation, or designee: Shannon Bulleri

Chief of Juvenile Probation, or designee: Paula Hernandez

Director of Department of Aging and Adult Services, or designee: Edith Chan

Director of Domestic Violence Consortium: Beverly Upton

Director of Elder Abuse Forensic Center, or designee: Glen Fishman

Director of San Francisco Child Abuse Council, or designee: Katie Albright

Director of Department of Children, Youth, and Their Families, or designee: Aumijo S. Gomes

Director of Department of Child Support Services, or designee: Freda R. Glenn

Director of the Department of Public Health, or designee: Leigh Kimberg, M.D.

Director of Human Services Agency, or designee: Trish Rudden

District Attorney, or designee: Gena Castro Rodriguez

Chief of Police, or designee: Captain Una Bailey

Executive Director of Department of Emergency Management, or designee: Janice Baldocchi

Human Resources Director, or designee: Reyna McKinnon

Mayor, or designee: Lili Gamero

President of Commission on the Status of Women, or designee: Olga Ryerson

Presiding Judge of the Superior Court, or designee:

Superintendent of San Francisco Unified School District, or designee: Erik Martinez

 

Absent:              

Chair of the Consortium of Batterers Intervention Programs, or designee

President of the Board of Supervisors, or designee:

Presiding Judge of the Superior Court, or designee:

Sheriff, or designee

Director of Department of Animal Care and Control, or designee

Public Defender, or designee

Chief of the Fire Department

 

Other attendees:

Antonia Lavine, National Council of Jewish Women; Connie Swain, La Casa De las Madres; Elise Hansell, Department on the Status of Women; Dr. Emily Murase, Department on the Status of Women; Hilda Chan, APILO; Liz Tarchi, District Attorney’s Office; Shelli R. Fein, First 5 SF; Thea Anderson, SFUSD; Jessica Marques, Child and Adolescent Support Advocacy and Resource Center; Connie Swain, La Casa De las Madres

 

1. Meeting agenda was approved. [Emily Murase/ Leigh Kimberg]

 

2. Approval of the Minutes.

The May 31, 2017 minutes were approved. [Emily Murase/Liz Tarchi]

 

III.Presentation on FY 2016 Family Violence Council Report

 

1. Department on the Status of Women Grants Associate Elise Hansell presented findings of the FY 2016 report. She asked that any additional feedback be submitted by a November 1 deadline.

 

Hansell stated that the report was based on data collected from July 1, 2015 – June 30, 2016 by 14 City public agencies and 25 community-based organizations.

 

Topics covered included:

1. Child abuse statistics, major findings
2. Intimate partner violence statistics, major findings
3. Elder & dependent adult abuse statistics, major findings
4. Ethnicity, gender of clients served by DOSW Violence Against Women Prevention & Intervention Grants Program.
5. Major Achievements of Family Violence Council, 2016-2017
6. Progress on 2016 recommendations
7. Recommendations (draft) for 2017-2018.

 

2. Discussion focused on positive trends, areas needing additional attention, and recommendations for FY 2016 Report.

 

Trend: Decrease in SVU Investigations

One issue of discussion is why domestic violence investigations have decreased. Emergency Management Operations Coordinator, Janice Baldocchi, stated that the “domestic violence” designation of cases is determined at the outset by patrol officers and does not change even if the case, after investigation, is not actually a domestic violence case. Captain Una Bailey said that she would like to meet with Ms. Hansell to confirm SVU’s data. Captain Bailey also stated that all elder abuse cases do not go to the Special Victims Unit, some will go to the Station Investigation Team (e.g., if the victim of any crime is a senior citizen). She stated that the Special Victims Unit’s internal analysis demonstrates an increase in investigations.

 

Trend: Stalking Cases

Ms. Tarchi stated that the District Attorney’s Office is not receiving the number of stalking cases reflected in the 911 statistics. Janice Baldocchi stated that there are cases reported as domestic violence cases where responding police officers discover stalking at the scene. Emergency Management suggested that additional information about stalking could be added into the notes box.

 

Recommendations:

1)Ms. Tarchi also surfaced the issue of domestic violence homicides for which death review is not allowed until the cases are fully adjudicated. Since homicides cases take many years to fully adjudicate, she recommended a policy solution. Tri-Chair Upton suggested follow-up to explore the Santa Clara option. She urged that a subcommittee be convened to address domestic violence death review. Related to death review, Tri-Chair Katie Albright reported that there may be additional progress to include by the time the report is nearly finalized.

2)Ms. Tarchi commended the Elder Justice Committee for its work on the new SFPD Elder Abuse Bulletin. She urged that the Council prioritize the adoption of the elder abuse cross-reporting protocol.

3)Tri-Chair Katie Albright asked if there are ways to expand child abuse data from Family Resource Centers and First Five. Shelli Fein recommended that the Family Violence Council report include prevention measures, not just incidence data. Tri-Chair Albright suggested that a workgroup be convened to focus on capturing prevention measures. Shelli Fein volunteered to join the workgroup. She added that there are available data from assessments conducted every three months. Dr. Leigh Kimberg strongly supported the idea of focusing on prevention measures. Dr. Kimberg applauded the data and graphs reflecting racial disparities among family violence victims in the FY 2016 FVC Report. She would like to see an expanded focus on health equity, social and racial justice.

4)Tri-Chair Albright would like to see better data on LGBT families. Shelli Fein reported that First 5 Service providers are now required to capture LGBT status of parents. Edith Chan of the Department of Aging & Adult Services reported on efforts to capture this data from seniors. Training. Trish Rudden explained that she expects expanded qualitative data collected at the point of referral.

5)Continue unfinished recommendations from FY2015 Family Violence Council Report (include Language Access “presentations from Language Access Workgroup”)

 

Dr. Murase recommended that the Council prioritize recommendations. Captain Bailey explained that she is focused on completing the Domestic Violence manual and urged that the Council focus on existing recommendations over new ones.

 

Dr. Murase recommended that the Our Children Our Families Council be invited to a future FVC meeting.

 

Tri-Chair Albright suggested that a third column be added to the recommendations progress chart that identifies the key agencies.

 

IV.Implementation of FY 2015 Family Violence Council Report Recommendations

1.  Dr. Leigh Kimberg provided an update on Mandatory Medical Reporting Protocol for San Francisco. Rather than just submitting the Cal OES form provided by the state, the workgroup also developed a supplemental form that is more survivor-centric.  The workgroup also advocated for DEM priority code of calls to change for calls from a hospital. The workgroup is in the process of rolling out a training plan that focuses on each major hospital system in the city. DEM created a training video/PPT for Kaiser to explain process for healthcare providers calling 9-1-1.

 

2.  Tri Chair Katie Albright provided an update on increased funding in city budget for child abuse prevention. DOSW will determine how to RFP/work order the $250,000.

 

V.Committee Updates/ Related Efforts

• 14 new Adult Probation Department staff started this Monday
• Special Victims Unit might be gaining new personnel in coming months
• Justice and Courage Committee update:

i.Special Victims Unit Assignment of Cases: Unit Order – in appendix

ii.Domestic Violence Call out Criteria Memo for DOC – in appendix

iii.Timely entry of restraining orders – a new e-mail system has been put in place between court and police department to improve timely entry of restraining orders.

 

VI.Key Issues in Family Violence

• Elder Abuse – law enforcement training completed for all Adult Protective Services staff
• Domestic Violence Consortium and Glide will do a presentation at the Futures Without Violence Domestic Violence and Healthcare Conference. Presentation will focus on domestic violence, heroin use, and the opioid crisis
• October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

 

 

VII.Public Comment