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Database Helps Fight Domestic Violence
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A couple of years ago, Files and other officials decided to resurrect the idea, and they were able to obtain grants to launch the system. On July 1, the secure, Web-based system went live and is largely operational, save for a few features in the works, Files said.
In sprawling Prince George's, which has more reports of domestic violence annually than any Maryland county or city, efficiency is important. Sheriff's deputies, as arms of the court, serve protective orders -- as well as peace orders, which are issued in cases in which the parties have not been married or otherwise cohabitating. On a busy shift, a deputy might serve eight to 10 orders.
But that is only part of the job in Prince George's, where sheriff's deputies also are responsible for responding to 911 calls of domestic violence in a central swath of the county that includes Capitol Heights, Forestville and Suitland.
If an officer shows up and it is unclear whether the abuse suspect has been served with an order, the officer can pull up the file on a dash-mounted laptop. In some cars, including the one Whyte uses, the officer can print out the document.
It is an option that is especially useful when the subject of a court order has hidden or destroyed the document, or when one of the round-the-clock court commissioners issues an interim order. Instead of heading to one of the 24-hour-a-day commissioners' offices in Hyattsville, Oxon Hill or Upper Marlboro to pick up the order, officers can pull it up wherever they are.
"Just in terms of response time, that takes hours and hours off a call," said Capt. Daniel Hall, who until recently led the sheriff's domestic violence unit.
For the people the police are trying to protect, the swifter the intervention the better, said Kenya Fairley, a counselor in Prince George's and director of residential services for the Family Crisis Center.
"What would help victims feel safer is immediate action by law enforcement to hold perpetrators accountable for the crimes they commit," Fairley said. "I think this database will assist in being able to do that."
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