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<title>Victim Services Archives - Police Chief Magazine</title>
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<title>Victim Services Archives - Police Chief Magazine</title>
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<title>Mapping Law Enforcement-Based Victim Services</title>
<link>https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/mapping-lev/</link>
<comments>https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/mapping-lev/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[David Teodosio]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 04 Dec 2024 13:00:57 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Bonus Online Article]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Community-Police Engagement]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Victim Services]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[data collection]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[efficiency-led management]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Law Enforcement-Based Victim Services]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[victim services]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/?p=87772</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<p><span data-contrast="auto">The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) has long supported law enforcement-based victim services (LEV). In recent years, the IACP’s work in providing training and technical assistance to these victim service providers has been funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime. Through this work, the IACP recognized the need for more data regarding the extent and operations of such programs.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">To conduct this investigation, the IACP partnered with the Justice Information Resource Network (formerly the Justice Research and Statistics Association) to explore the scope and nature of LEV through a series of interconnected activities. These included surveying law enforcement agencies, interviewing a set of survey respondents, conducting case studies on six agencies with victim services programs, and holding focus groups with senior victim services professionals. The project shed light on the extent of victim services in law enforcement, the benefits to victims and agencies, factors in success, and some of the challenges in maintaining a strong victim assistance program.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/mapping-lev/">Mapping Law Enforcement-Based Victim Services</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org">Police Chief Magazine</a>.</p>
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p> </p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) has long supported law enforcement-based victim services (LEV). In recent years, the IACP’s work in providing training and technical assistance to these victim service providers has been funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime. Through this work, the IACP recognized the need for more data regarding the extent and operations of such programs.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">To conduct this investigation, the IACP partnered with the Justice Information Resource Network (formerly the Justice Research and Statistics Association) to explore the scope and nature of LEV through a series of interconnected activities. These included surveying law enforcement agencies, interviewing a set of survey respondents, conducting case studies on six agencies with victim services programs, and holding focus groups with senior victim services professionals. The project shed light on the extent of victim services in law enforcement, the benefits to victims and agencies, factors in success, and some of the challenges in maintaining a strong victim assistance program.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<aside class="pullout pullout--wide alignleft"></p>
<p><b><span data-contrast="auto"><span style="color: #672767;">How the Data Were Gathered</span></span></b><span style="color: #672767;" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559738":880,"335559739":240,"335559740":240}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">The project team conducted a survey of law enforcement-based victim services in two phases. The first phase targeted those programs funded through the Office of Victims of Crime (OVC) Law Enforcement-based Victim Services Program and/or OVC Victims of Crime Act grants. The second phase expanded the survey to all agencies indicating they provided victim services in response to the 2016 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey of the Bureau of Justice Statistics. A total of 2,250 U.S. agencies were invited to participate in the survey, and 420 agencies across 47 states completed the survey. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Follow-up interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of 52 survey respondents across both phases. This work was supplemented by case studies conducted on OVC sites selected to represent a diversity of agencies and locations. Finally, three focus groups of senior victim services staff were held to explore additional issues.</span></p>
<p></aside>
<h1><span style="color: #672767;"><b>Victim Services Programs</b> </span></h1>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">The project revealed that, while there was no one blueprint for LEV, certain aspects applied to a majority of programs. All LEV programs included in this study employed (nonsworn) professional staff to provide direct victim services. Seventy-one percent of responding agencies indicated they provide assistance to victims through a specialized unit. Victim services programs were most commonly housed in an investigation division, but others reported directly to the police chief or sheriff or were housed in another division such as community relations or patrol. The average staff size of a victim services unit was four full-time employees (FTEs); however, the majority (61 percent) had two or fewer FTEs.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Most programs (78 percent) utilized funding from federal grants, including direct funding from the Office for Victims of Crime, Office on Violence Against Women, or Bureau of Justice Statistics, or pass-through funding administered at the state level through Victims of Crime Acts or Violence Against Women Act subgrants. Over half of agencies (56 percent) had at least some part of the victim services program covered by the overall agency budget; 15 percent indicated their entire victim services budget was covered by the agency budget.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">While victim services programs most often indicated they served victims of violent crime—or specific crimes including homicide, aggravated assault, domestic violence, sexual violence, stalking, trafficking, and elder or child abuse—only 11 percent of respondents said their services were </span><i><span data-contrast="auto">limited</span></i><span data-contrast="auto"> to victims of specific crimes. In other words, most programs retained the flexibility to respond to any crime.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">The services most often provided to victims were:</span></p>
<ul>
<li><span data-contrast="auto">Information and referral services (99 percent)</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></li>
<li data-leveltext="•" data-font="Calibri" data-listid="5" data-list-defn-props="{"335551671":0,"335552541":1,"335559685":360,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Calibri","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"•","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-aria-level="1"><span data-contrast="auto">Legal and victims’ rights assistance (99 percent)</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></li>
<li data-leveltext="•" data-font="Calibri" data-listid="5" data-list-defn-props="{"335551671":0,"335552541":1,"335559685":360,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Calibri","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"•","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-aria-level="1"><span data-contrast="auto">Assistance with crime victim compensation or other material assistance (97 percent)</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></li>
<li data-leveltext="•" data-font="Calibri" data-listid="5" data-list-defn-props="{"335551671":0,"335552541":1,"335559685":360,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Calibri","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"•","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-aria-level="1"><span data-contrast="auto">Safety planning (86 percent)</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></li>
<li data-leveltext="•" data-font="Calibri" data-listid="5" data-list-defn-props="{"335551671":0,"335552541":1,"335559685":360,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Calibri","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"•","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-aria-level="1"><span data-contrast="auto">Crisis intervention (74 percent)</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></li>
</ul>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Other common services included assistance with return of personal property (69 percent); transportation assistance (68 percent); intervention with an employer, creditor, landlord, or academic institution (65percent); locating emergency or other housing assistance (61 percent); or obtaining or replacing documents such as social security cards or driver’s licenses (41 percent).</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<h1></h1>
<h1><span style="color: #672767;"><b>Benefits of Victim Services</b> </span></h1>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Victims of crime, and family members of homicide victims, are the primary beneficiaries of LEV programs. Establishing a specific, well-trained person or unit within the agency ensures that victims receive an empathetic, trauma-informed response and acknowledgment of the harm they have sustained. Whether that contact is provided initially at the scene or within a short time after the incident, victims are given the message that someone cares about them. They also have a clear point of contact who can provide the practical assistance to begin recovery, someone who can field their questions, support them during the investigation, and connect them to government and community services to address the needs resulting from their victimization.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<blockquote><p><strong><span class="TextRun SCXW69221358 BCX8" lang="EN-US" style="color: #672767;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW69221358 BCX8">“</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW69221358 BCX8">Statistically speaking, the percentage of cases that go to prosecution is </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW69221358 BCX8">very low</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW69221358 BCX8">, and </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW69221358 BCX8">there’s</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW69221358 BCX8"> a lot of time that passes… </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW69221358 BCX8">Who’s</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW69221358 BCX8"> helping that person at the time of the crime?” </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW69221358 BCX8">—V</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW69221358 BCX8">ictim </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW69221358 BCX8">S</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW69221358 BCX8">ervices Interviewee</span></span></strong></p></blockquote>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Providing victim assistance at the law enforcement level was seen by interviewees as filling an important gap in services. Persons without a daily connection to the justice system may assume that serving victims at the prosecution level is sufficient, but as one victim services interviewee noted, “Statistically speaking, the percentage of cases that go to prosecution is very low, and there’s a lot of time that passes … Who’s helping that person at the time of the crime?” Having victim services at the law enforcement level provides victims an immediate connection to support, information, and resources.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Interviewees also made clear that the benefits of victim services were not limited to victims; law enforcement agencies also derive a number of benefits from strong victim services programs.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #672767;"><b>Improved agency efficiency</b></span><span data-contrast="auto"><span style="color: #672767;">.</span> One of the most commonly reported benefits was more efficient operations through defined roles for officers and victim services staff, allowing officers to focus on the investigation while victim services staff provided hands-on care for the victim. This care can include supporting the victim at the hospital, while the officer turns to other responsibilities; fielding the same question from victims or families multiple times; responding to frequent requests for information about the status of the investigation; and listening to victim concerns that aren’t strictly related to the investigation or law enforcement’s response.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #672767;"><b>Increased victim engagement</b></span><span data-contrast="auto"><span style="color: #672767;">.</span> During interviews and focus groups, several sworn supervisors and victim services staff reported that providing victim assistance appeared to improve victim engagement in the process throughout the investigation and into prosecution. One victim services provider tracked her own data and found that when victims were NOT contacted by victim services within three days, their participation rate dropped by more than half.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<p><span class="TextRun SCXW173112912 BCX8" lang="EN-US" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW173112912 BCX8"><aside class="pullout alignleft"> One</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW173112912 BCX8"> victim services </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW173112912 BCX8">professional </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW173112912 BCX8">tracking her own data found that victim participation in the justice process dropped by half for victims who were NOT contacted by victim services within </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW173112912 BCX8">three</span> <span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW173112912 BCX8">days. </aside></span></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #672767;"><b>Improved community relations. </b></span><span data-contrast="auto">An improved victim response and a victim services connection to local service providers were credited with improved community perceptions of police, improved community trust, and strengthened collaborations with community organizations—particularly community-based victim service providers.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<h1><span style="color: #672767;"><b>Key Factors in Success</b> </span></h1>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Interviewees—both sworn supervisors and victim services program staff—made a number of observations regarding factors that were instrumental to program success.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #672767;"><b>Leadership Support. </b></span><span data-contrast="auto">Support from agency leadership—most commonly the chief or sheriff but including other command-level leaders—was seen by victim services professionals as the biggest factor in ensuring a strong victim services program. This support was demonstrated in a number of ways. Sometimes it was clear actions to raise the profile of victim services, such as through the physical placement of the victim services office or including and acknowledging them in department-wide or leadership meetings. Other times it was made apparent in leader comments during case discussions, such as by noting, “That sounds like you could use victim services to reach out.” Leadership support was also evidenced through making victim services part of the agency’s internal budget or strongly supporting grant applications.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #672767;"><b>Fostering Personal Relationships. </b></span><span data-contrast="auto">Both supervisors and victim services staff stressed the value of relationship building in maximizing the benefit of the program. In particular, officers had to come to trust the victim services staff. To build this relationship, interviewees noted that victim services staff have to be seen and heard, which is accomplished by strategies such as physically locating victim services within the investigation unit or other visible location within the agency; encouraging victim services to participate in ride-alongs; having victim services staff and officers lunch together; including victim services staff in roll calls and other meetings where reports or updates were expected; and utilizing victim services staff to train officers on issues relating to victimization or trauma.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #672767;"><b>Firsthand Experience. </b></span><span data-contrast="auto">Many victim services professionals noted that individual officers became real partners after witnessing victim services firsthand. While they may learn about victim assistance in the academy or other training, it often takes observing the victim response in action to demonstrate the value of that role. One victim services provider observed that after officers witnessed services being provided to victims, then “We’re on their speed dial.” Relatedly, several interviewees recounted instances where senior agency staff who had worked with their victim services went on to a position in another agency and prioritized creating a victim services program in their new agencies because they had experienced the value of victim services to victims, the agency, and the community.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #672767;"><b>Clear Roles. </b></span><span data-contrast="auto">While those creating a victim services position understand where victim services fit into the agency, it can be important for the frontline officers to understand the demarcation of the victim services role.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Clear roles are also important for the victims. One victim services professional related that she tells victims, “I’m not here to investigate. I’m not here to take your statement. I am only here [for] you,” which helps the victims to feel supported and valued. </span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #672767;"><b>Policies/Procedures. </b></span><span data-contrast="auto">Incorporating victim services in general orders or agency policies was also seen as important. It provided a sense that victim response would have a permanent place in the agency’s mission and daily actions.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Including victim response in officer review or providing an opportunity to recognize individual officers for their victim response serve to help officers remember to incorporate victim response into their work—including by ensuring victims are routinely connected to victim services.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<p><span style="color: #672767;"><b>The Right Hire. </b></span><span data-contrast="auto">Sworn supervisors often pointed to the importance of hiring the right person to lead a victim services program. In interviews conducted as part of the six case studies, law enforcement leadership identified five key attributes of victim services personnel:</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<ul>
<li data-leveltext="•" data-font="Calibri" data-listid="2" data-list-defn-props="{"335551671":0,"335552541":1,"335559685":360,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Calibri","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"•","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="0" data-aria-level="1"><span data-contrast="auto">Having compassion for victims who are experiencing trauma</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></li>
<li data-leveltext="•" data-font="Calibri" data-listid="2" data-list-defn-props="{"335551671":0,"335552541":1,"335559685":360,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Calibri","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"•","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="0" data-aria-level="1"><span data-contrast="auto">Being a team player who can communicate, collaborate, and improve unit effectiveness</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></li>
<li data-leveltext="•" data-font="Calibri" data-listid="2" data-list-defn-props="{"335551671":0,"335552541":1,"335559685":360,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Calibri","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"•","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="0" data-aria-level="1"><span data-contrast="auto">Having experience—in victim services (a must), grants management (a plus), and program development (a plus)</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></li>
<li data-leveltext="•" data-font="Calibri" data-listid="2" data-list-defn-props="{"335551671":0,"335552541":1,"335559685":360,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Calibri","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"•","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="0" data-aria-level="1"><span data-contrast="auto">Being able to think “outside the box” and innovate new ways to get people what they need</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></li>
<li data-leveltext="•" data-font="Calibri" data-listid="2" data-list-defn-props="{"335551671":0,"335552541":1,"335559685":360,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Calibri","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"•","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="0" data-aria-level="1"><span data-contrast="auto">Being a self-starter, driven to help others and quick to learn and manage the fast-paced environment of the law enforcement agency</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></li>
</ul>
<h1><span style="color: #672767;"><b>Challenges</b></span></h1>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Victim services programs within law enforcement are not immune to challenges. The most commonly reported challenges were related to agency size and resources and the availability of funding. These challenges can restrict the services programs can provide.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">While obtaining initial funding is key, maintaining funding was also seen as a challenge, particularly with increased competition for grant funding. It is essential for victim services programs to be able to document the difference they are making for victims, the agency, and the community to be able to demonstrate the need for and value of those programs.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Another identified challenge was leadership change. For example, if victim services were viewed as a “special program” that had been a priority for previous leadership, they ran the risk of being displaced by new priorities. Full integration of the program, through general orders/policies and routine activities, can help prevent a program from being viewed merely as an outdated initiative.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Staff workload can also be a challenge, causing highly qualified staff to step down. Building in wellness support, promoting partnerships with community programs, and supporting robust volunteer or intern programs can be helpful. It can also be important to ensure that victim services staff are not expected to shoulder primary responsibility for officer wellness.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Other challenges were also mentioned, including a lack of local community services for victims such as emergency shelter or counseling, an insufficient number of qualified and available volunteers—especially in rural areas—and a lack of access to interpretation services for non-English speaking victims.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<h1><span style="color: #672767;"><b>Sustaining Victim Services</b> </span></h1>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Both the case studies and victim services focus groups explored steps to sustain victim services programming in a law enforcement agency. Several concrete recommendations resulted:</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<ul>
<li data-leveltext="•" data-font="Calibri" data-listid="4" data-list-defn-props="{"335551671":0,"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Calibri","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"•","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="0" data-aria-level="1"><span style="color: #672767;"><b>Invest time in identifying state and federal funding opportunities.</b></span><span data-contrast="auto"> Identifying various funding opportunities well in advance of application deadlines can help an agency think through needed structural requirements, partnerships, and other elements that may take time to work through.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559685":360,"335559740":480}"> </span></li>
<li data-leveltext="•" data-font="Calibri" data-listid="4" data-list-defn-props="{"335551671":0,"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Calibri","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"•","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="0" data-aria-level="1"><span style="color: #672767;"><b>Diversify funding sources.</b></span><span data-contrast="auto"> Many of the mature victim services programs used a combination of agency funding and grant support to fund and expand their victim services program.</span></li>
<li data-leveltext="•" data-font="Calibri" data-listid="4" data-list-defn-props="{"335551671":0,"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Calibri","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"•","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="0" data-aria-level="1"><span style="color: #672767;"><b>Identify key stakeholders</b></span><span data-contrast="auto"> (e.g., leaders in law enforcement and the community) well in advance of budget requests or grant applications and build up support from them.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559685":360,"335559740":480}"> </span></li>
<li data-leveltext="•" data-font="Calibri" data-listid="4" data-list-defn-props="{"335551671":0,"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Calibri","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"•","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="0" data-aria-level="1"><span data-contrast="auto">When applying for grants,</span><span style="color: #672767;"><b> seek assistance from an experienced grant writer</b></span><span data-contrast="auto"> to navigate the proposal development process and ensure compliance with all requirements.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559685":360,"335559740":480}"> </span></li>
<li data-leveltext="•" data-font="Calibri" data-listid="4" data-list-defn-props="{"335551671":0,"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Calibri","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"•","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="0" data-aria-level="1"><span style="color: #672767;"><b>Engage stakeholders</b></span><span data-contrast="auto"> throughout the design, planning, implementation, and evaluation of victim services. This will improve the quality and reputation of the program.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559685":360,"335559740":480}"> </span></li>
</ul>
<h1><span style="color: #672767;"><b>Conclusion</b> </span></h1>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">The findings of the IACP Victim Services Mapping Project reinforce the 2019 IACP resolution, “The Importance of Law Enforcement-Based Victim Services in the United States.”</span><span data-contrast="auto">1</span><span data-contrast="auto"> That resolution called for agencies to employ victim services personnel or enter formal agreements with local victim services organizations to ensure that crime victims have immediate access to professional personnel who understand the complexities of trauma and victim needs. It further called on state and local agencies to work with state Victims of Crime Act administrators and local legislators to identify opportunities and to allocate adequate funding for LEV. These action steps remain a priority for law enforcement leadership.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<h1><span style="color: #672767;"><b>For More Resources</b> </span></h1>
<p><b><span data-contrast="auto"><aside class="pullout alignleft">IACP Resources to Develop Victim Services in Your Agency</span></b><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></p>
<ul>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="1" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":360,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-aria-level="1"><a href="https://vimeo.com/786358761"><span data-contrast="none">Law Enforcement-Based Victim Services: An Overview (video)</span></a><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="1" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":360,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="2" data-aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.theiacp.org/sites/default/files/LEV/Publications/QRGettingStarted.pdf"><span data-contrast="none">Quick Reference – Getting Started</span></a><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="1" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":360,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="3" data-aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.theiacp.org/sites/default/files/LEV/Publications/QRVictimServicesRole.pdf"><span data-contrast="none">Quick Reference – Victim Services Role</span></a><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="1" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":360,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="4" data-aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.theiacp.org/sites/default/files/LEV/Publications/KeyConsiderations.pdf"><span data-contrast="none">Key Considerations</span></a><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="1" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":360,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="5" data-aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.theiacp.org/sites/default/files/2023-10/TemplatePackageI.pdf"><span data-contrast="none">Template Package I: Getting Started</span></a> <b><span data-contrast="auto"></aside></span></b><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></li>
</ul>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">The IACP’s Law Enforcement-Based Victim Services (LEV) Program has the tools, resources, and direct assistance available to help agencies learn more and start their own victim services program. These resources were developed in collaboration with existing programs, building off their experience.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto">Existing programs are always invited and encouraged to reach out to the IACP for individual guidance, materials, and peer support to address challenges. This assistance is made possible through funding from the Office for Victims of Crime, which recognizes the value of law enforcement-level victim response.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> <span style="font-family: Webdings;">d</span></span></p>
<p><b><span data-contrast="auto">Note:</span></b><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span><br />
<span data-contrast="auto"><sup>1</sup> Victim Services Committee, “The Importance of Law Enforcement-Based Victim Services in the United States,” </span><a href="https://www.theiacp.org/sites/default/files/Adopted%202019%20Resolutions__Final.pdf"><span data-contrast="none">IACP Resolution</span></a><span data-contrast="auto">, adopted December 2019, 39–40.</span></p>
<p><b><span data-contrast="auto"><aside class="pullout pullout--wide alignleft"> </span></b><i><span data-contrast="auto">This article was produced by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) under Cooperative Agreement 15POVC-22-GK-01805-NONF, awarded by the Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the U.S. Department of Justice.</span></i><b><span data-contrast="auto"></aside></span></b><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p>
<hr />
<p>Please cite as</p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;">Susan Smith Howley, “Mapping Law Enforcement-Based Victim Services,” Police Chief Online, December 4, 2024.</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/mapping-lev/">Mapping Law Enforcement-Based Victim Services</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org">Police Chief Magazine</a>.</p>
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<title>Enhancing Police Services in Immigrant Communities</title>
<link>https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/enhancing-police-services-immigrant-communities/</link>
<comments>https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/enhancing-police-services-immigrant-communities/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Margaret White]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 21 Aug 2024 16:05:02 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Bonus Online Article]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Topics]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Victim Services]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[immigrants]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[T visa]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[U visa]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[victims]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/?p=78962</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<p>Police executives and community leaders recognize the need to build and sustain solid relationships with all communities, especially communities of color, since the police depend on community members to detect, report, and prevent crimes. However, over the past years, the rise of the local police enforcement of federal immigration laws in the United States has increased fear and concerns over police encounters and reporting crimes, especially among immigrant community members. The resulting perception of police as less trustworthy and legitimate is a cause for concern since trust is fundamental to sustaining crime reduction and safer communities. Resolving the trust challenges requires engagement and collaboration with each other.</p>
<p>U and T visa programs are an important tool for police agencies to strengthen trust and build more effective community policing relationships with immigrant communities. The U and T visas can be used to support victims in coming forward and helping the police hold perpetrators accountable. Victims who fear deportation will be unlikely to come forward to help government officials detect criminal activities, cooperate and assist in investigative efforts, or participate in criminal prosecutions of crime perpetrators. To this end, the U and T visas can prove useful in mitigating the fear of deportation and encourage engagement with the justice system.</p>
<p>Minneapolis, Minnesota, and San Francisco, California, are two jurisdictions that serve as successful examples of police best practices utilizing the U and T visa program.<sup>1</sup> By taking advantage of the program, both police departments have seen an increase in trust, a reduction of crime, and an improvement in their departments’ abilities to hold criminal offenders accountable. These practices follow the blue-ribbon recommendations of the President’s 21st Century Policing Task Force and the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s (IACP) Trust-Building Campaign to enhance police legitimacy and engage immigrant victims’ participation in the criminal justice system in order to reduce crimes.</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/enhancing-police-services-immigrant-communities/">Enhancing Police Services in Immigrant Communities</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org">Police Chief Magazine</a>.</p>
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Police executives and community leaders recognize the need to build and sustain solid relationships with all communities, especially communities of color, since the police depend on community members to detect, report, and prevent crimes. However, over the past years, the rise of the local police enforcement of federal immigration laws in the United States has increased fear and concerns over police encounters and reporting crimes, especially among immigrant community members. The resulting perception of police as less trustworthy and legitimate is a cause for concern since trust is fundamental to sustaining crime reduction and safer communities. Resolving the trust challenges requires engagement and collaboration with each other.</p>
<p>U and T visa programs are an important tool for police agencies to strengthen trust and build more effective community policing relationships with immigrant communities. The U and T visas can be used to support victims in coming forward and helping the police hold perpetrators accountable. Victims who fear deportation will be unlikely to come forward to help government officials detect criminal activities, cooperate and assist in investigative efforts, or participate in criminal prosecutions of crime perpetrators. To this end, the U and T visas can prove useful in mitigating the fear of deportation and encourage engagement with the justice system.</p>
<p>Minneapolis, Minnesota, and San Francisco, California, are two jurisdictions that serve as successful examples of police best practices utilizing the U and T visa program.<sup>1</sup> By taking advantage of the program, both police departments have seen an increase in trust, a reduction of crime, and an improvement in their departments’ abilities to hold criminal offenders accountable. These practices follow the blue-ribbon recommendations of the President’s 21st Century Policing Task Force and the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s (IACP) Trust-Building Campaign to enhance police legitimacy and engage immigrant victims’ participation in the criminal justice system in order to reduce crimes.</p>
<h2><span style="color: #0071b9;"><strong>The </strong><strong>Importance of Establishing Trust</strong></span></h2>
<p>In a survey conducted by the National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project (NIWAP), American University, Washington College of Law, in 2017, police officers from across the United States reported that victims’ fears of deportation, perpetrators’ deportation threats, and fears that police will turn in undocumented victims for immigration enforcement play a key role in victims’ reticence to engage with the police.<sup>2</sup> In addition, the survey showed that when community members, regardless of status, choose silence over engagement, there is a reduction in reports of criminal offenses. When victims in immigrant and limited English proficiency (LEP) communities are able to report crimes without fear of deportation, the police are better able to obtain the necessary information to identify, track, and hold more violent offenders accountable.</p>
<p>The President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing identified best practices and offered recommendations on how policing practices can promote effective crime reduction while building public trust. The President’s Task Force emphasized,</p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>Trust between law enforcement agencies and the people they protect and serve is essential in a democracy. It is key to the stability of our communities, the integrity of our criminal justice system, and the safe and effective delivery of policing services</em>.<sup>3</sup></p>
<p> It further recognizes that the United States has become more pluralistic. Officers and leaders “must be trained and capable to address a wide variety of challenges including… evolving technologies, rising immigration, changing laws, new cultural mores” Furthermore, the President’s Task Force recommended that executive leaders (1) build trust with immigrant communities because they often fear approaching police officers when they are victims of crimes, and (2) create laws, policies, and practices to support local police in building strong relationships to enhance public safety and community well-being.<sup>4</sup></p>
<p>Furthermore, the IACP announced the launch of the Trust Building Campaign in 2022.<sup>5</sup> The campaign encourages positive community-police partnerships that promote safe, effective interactions, create and reduce crime, and improve all communities’ well-being and quality of life. This campaign is consistent with IACP’s prior recognition that, in police departments’ work with immigrant communities, the U and T visa programs provide agencies with an important tool that encourages positive community-police partnerships, help improve trust building, and enhance services to immigrant victims.<sup>6</sup></p>
<h2><span style="color: #0071b9;">Protecting Communities</span></h2>
<p>The U and T visa programs result from a bipartisan effort by the U.S. Congress to develop crime-fighting tools and humanitarian relief for crime victims. The U and T visa programs were included in the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). When creating the U Visa program, U.S. Senators Orrin Hatch, Joe Biden, Spencer Abraham, and Edward Kennedy stated that VAWA</p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>strengthens and refines the protections for battered immigrant women in the original Violence Against Women Act. Eliminates a number of ‘‘catch-22’’ policies and unintended consequences of subsequent changes in immigration law to ensure that domestic abusers with immigrant victims are brought to justice and that the battered immigrants … are able to escape the abuse.</em><sup>7</sup></p>
<p>The U and T visa programs involve a multiyear process that can provide immigrant crime victims, including undocumented victims, with lawful immigration status if the victims are willing to assist the police in detecting and investigating crimes with high-recidivism rates. The congressional intent of these two powerful acts, VAWA and TVPA, was to (1) strengthen the ability of the police to effectively detect, investigate, and prosecute cases of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, child and elder abuse, and other serious crimes; (2) improve community policing and “advance the cause of justice for crime victims and truly offer the prospect of improving public safety” by increasing immigrant victims’ willingness and ability to safely participate in the justice system and criminal investigations and prosecutions of perpetrators; (3) enhance relationships between the police and immigrant communities; and (4) improve the safety of victims, communities, and police officers.<sup>8</sup></p>
<p>A 2020 report from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services found that domestic violence, sexual assault, and child and human trafficking make up over 58 percent of the U visa cases filed in the United States, and felonious assault accounted for another 46 percent.<sup>9</sup> A 2017 law enforcement survey found that 42 percent of U.S. police officials believe federal immigration enforcement practices were affecting community-police encounters and police relationships with immigrant and LEP communities.<sup>10</sup> This is important because immigrant populations are more vulnerable to criminal activities such as domestic violence, sexual assault, crimes against children, and human trafficking.<sup>11</sup> However, many victims are hesitant to approach or engage with the police because of factors such as language barriers and fears of deportation or being reported to immigration officials. The survey found that police departments with established U and T visa programs appear to have a better trust-building relationship with immigrant crime victims. This is consistent with prior studies that showed heightened fears of Latinx community members and mistrust of police agencies that involve local police in immigration enforcement.<sup>12</sup></p>
<h2><span style="color: #0071b9;">The Need for Ongoing Efforts</span></h2>
<h3><span style="color: #9a1b22;">U and T Visa Protocols</span></h3>
<p>Community members, at times, are misinformed about the role of their local police department in enforcing immigration laws or in cooperating with federal immigration officers in the deportations of immigrant families. Thus, the community’s perception of their police departments can fracture their trust and decrease reporting of both crime victimization and criminal activity in their neighborhoods, thereby reducing the number of community members engaged in crime reduction.</p>
<p>The San Francisco and Minneapolis police agencies have internal policies in place endorsing the use of the U and T visas as crime-fighting tools enabling police departments to better serve immigrant victims of crime that they encounter in their communities and to reduce victims’ and witnesses’ fears of reporting crimes San Francisco and Minneapolis have identified, throughout the years of these policies being in place, the barriers they help overcome and important lessons of using the U and T visa programs.</p>
<p>The San Francisco Police Department has an internal policy —General Order 5.15, also known as Enforcement of Immigration Laws.<sup>13</sup> Similarly, the Minneapolis Police Department has policy 9-114, also known as Police Authority In Immigration Matters<em>,</em> and the city of Minneapolis has enacted ordinance §19.30, which prohibits “any law enforcement action for the purpose of detecting the presence of undocumented persons, or to verify immigration status,” except for a narrow exception for enforcing criminal laws such as those relating to human trafficking and smuggling where immigration status is an element of the crime.<sup>14</sup> Both police departments’ policies and the Minneapolis ordinance state that detention of community members based on appearance, national origin, or LEP is prohibited and that law enforcement officials shall not require individuals to produce any documents to prove their immigration status. These are critical components of policies that preserve immigrant communities’ trust and police departments’ legitimacy.</p>
<p>In San Francisco, the first bulletin regarding the U visa protocol to help immigrant victims of crime was sent out to police officers in 2011. It is still in effect, with enhancements that have improved its effectiveness over the years. Both cities have a very straightforward policy available to everyone explaining how the U visa program can help officers build trust and collaboration with the community. The policy was necessary to communicate to the immigrant community and officers that the police officers were not immigration officials and they would not send immigrants to deportation nor use any immigration status information against them. Minneapolis also has a protocol requiring that these policies be sent out to all police officers yearly.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #9a1b22;">U and T Visas as Crime-Fighting Tools</span></h3>
<p>U and T visa programs are important as crime-fighting tools because they support and encourage victims to stay engaged with the police throughout the years it can take for a case to close. San Franscisco Sergeant Inspector Antonio Flores explains that jury trials can take up to five years to complete; without a U visa in process, victims would be unlikely to stay around to participate in the criminal justice process, and criminal offenders would not be convicted. Minnesota Commander Giovanni Veliz also agrees that the U visa program is a crime reduction tool. With the pandemic and the loss of a large number of officers, the U visa has been an important tool to help the work of the police and encourage immigrant community members to proactively report crimes.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #9a1b22;">Community Outreach</span></h3>
<p>The first step building trust with immigrant communities is understanding that often immigrant community members are not familiar with U.S. police agencies’ services, policies, and procedures. Often, their mistrust of the police comes from their experience in their home country. The San Francisco and Minneapolis Police Departments understood that, and—to educate and engage the community as partners in crime reduction and collaboration with their local police departments—the police had to reach out to immigrant communities. San Francisco and Minneapolis Police Departments conduct regular community meetings with community leaders, community-based organizations, and victim services programs to learn ways to enhance their departments’ delivery of police services and develop internal policies to serve immigrant communities better. This outreach also educates the community about local police policies and programs such as U and T visas.</p>
<p>The U visa program has helped San Francisco agencies build trust with immigrant victims and with the professionals working with immigrant communities, such as immigration attorneys, defense attorneys, therapists, and victim advocates. Sergeant Inspector Flores frequently meets with immigrant advocates, legal service providers, and community stakeholders to provide updated information about police anti-human trafficking prevention efforts, community collaboration, and outreach activities to build trust in the San Francisco Police Department. Moreover, Sergeant Inspector Flores is a U and T visa national trainer and frequently travels around the United States to discuss the values of the program and train other police departments.</p>
<table class="alignright" style="width: 50%; border-collapse: collapse; border-style: solid; border-color: #f5f6f8;" border="3">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 100%; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #0071b9; font-size: 26px;"><strong>“U and T visas are essential tools for shielding victims of crime from further harm. U and T visa protections empower victims of crime to be active participants in the effort to reduce the likelihood of further victimization through strong partnerships with the Minneapolis Police Department. These partnerships are essential to educating as to the role of the police and building secure bonds between the department and immigrant communities.”</strong><br />
—Chief Brian O’Hara, Minneapolis Police Department</span></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Similarly, in Minneapolis, Commander Veliz meets with faith-based organizations and immigration attorneys to provide updates on the U visa program and to recruit community leaders to participate in a seven-week citizens’ academy.</p>
<p>The citizens’ academy offers community members the opportunity to learn about police policies, become familiar with procedures and police services, and get to know police officers. Community members are taught how to call 911 and learn about narcotics investigations, traffic investigations, procedures in juvenile cases, forgery investigations, and the U visa program. Most academy participants report that the educational opportunities improve trust building and provide them with opportunities to learn how to become involved in crime reduction strategies in their neighborhoods. The program improved relationships by informing immigrant community members about police operations and procedures, and at the same time, informing police officers about the immigrant community’s history and needs—enabling them to become more culturally competent in delivering services. Moreover, it has led to arrests of criminals preying on immigrant victims.</p>
<p>As a result of these trust-building efforts, both agencies have received information from immigrant community members that led to the arrest of forgery rings, a criminal impersonating a federal agent seeking to extort money from families, and drug dealers as well as the seizure of a large quantity of drugs.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #9a1b22;">Education Throughout the Police Department and Leadership Support</span></h3>
<p>In addition to educating the community regarding the U and T visa program, both the San Francisco and Minneapolis Police Departments promote continual training for police staff to ensure effective help for immigrant crime victims. Often, trainings on the U visa are combined with trainings on domestic violence and stalking. The goal of these training is to educate frontline officers about how these tools, combined with effectively implemented language access plans, facilitate proper identification and investigation of crimes being committed in immigrant communities. These cities’ experience has also found that it is important for mid-level supervisors and specialized investigators, including certifying officials and department leadership, to receive training on the procedures and requirements to ensure victims receive certifications in a timely manner.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #9a1b22;">Victim-Centered Approach</span></h3>
<p>Immigrant crime victims are often vulnerable and suffering from traumas and victimization. Sergeant Inspector Flores and Commander Veliz explain that police officers should use a victim-centered approach. Listening to victims’ stories, understanding their traumas and their experiences, and explaining the entire process that the victim will go through as the criminal case moves through the justice system are steps that are fundamental to a victim-centered approach. Minneapolis is currently training officers to use a holistic approach to enhance police officer’s cultural competency when working with victims. Police officers should also collaborate with other professionals, such as victims’ advocates, therapists, and attorneys, when talking to immigrant victims. Sergeant Inspector Flores points out that each victim is different, and it is important to understand each victim’s particular needs. For example, some victims are concerned about immigration status, while some immigrant victims have other concerns. Most importantly, police need to work with the immigrant community and understand that community members are the people who will spread the word in their community about the work the police are doing to help them. This understanding is a key pillar of the partnership between immigrant communities and the police.</p>
<p>In conclusion, San Francisco and Minneapolis have developed and implemented laws, policies, and practices to foster respect, trust, and encourage cooperation between immigrant community members, city officials, and the police to improve public safety in all communities. Based upon the experience of both police departments, the ongoing process of outreach to the immigrant community, the continued education of officers, the establishment of U and T visa protocols and active certification programs, and a victim-centered approach are fundamental to the success of the U and T visa program as a tool to build trust and cooperation between police and the immigrant community.<strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>Notes:</strong></p>
<p><sup>1</sup>Commander Giovanni Veliz (Minneapolis) and Sergeant Inspector Antonio Flores (San Francisco) spoke more in-depth about their experience with U and T visa programs in the Spring 2023 <a href="https://niwaplibrary.wcl.american.edu/niwap-podcast-series"><em>National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project</em> podcast series</a>.</p>
<p><sup>2</sup>Stacey Ivie et al., “Overcoming Fear and Building Trust With Immigrant Communities and Crimes Victims,” <em>Police Chief </em>(April 2018): 34–40.</p>
<p><sup>3</sup>President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, <a href="https://cops.usdoj.gov/"><em>Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing</em></a> (Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 2015).</p>
<p><sup>4</sup><a href="https://www.theiacp.org/iacp-trust-building-campaign">IACP Trust Building Campaign</a> (2022).</p>
<p><sup>5</sup>Victim Services Committee, “<a href="https://niwaplibrary.wcl.american.edu/pubs/iacp-support-for-education-and-awareness-on-u-visa-certifications-and-t-visa-declarations">Support for Education and Awareness on U Visa Certifications and T Visa Declarations</a>” IACP Resolution (November 2018).</p>
<p><sup>6</sup>Violence Against Women Act of 2000 — Section by Section Summary 146 Cong. Rec. S10195 (Oct. 11, 2000).</p>
<p><sup>7</sup>Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, H.R. Rep. No. 106-939, pt. 15 (2000) (Conf. Rep.) (statement of Rep. Hyde).</p>
<p><sup>8</sup>See Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, H.R. Rep. No. 106-939, pt. 15 (2000) (Conf. Rep.) (statement of Rep. Hyde); Stacey Ivie et al., “Overcoming Fear and Building Trust with Immigrant Communities and Crime Victims,” <em>Police Chief</em> 85, no. 4 (April 2018): 34–40; and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, <em><a href="https://niwaplibrary.wcl.american.edu/pubs/u_visa_lea-certs-report">U Visa Report: Trends in U Visa Law Enforcement Certification, Qualifying Crimes and Evidence of Helpfulness</a></em> (July 2020).</p>
<p><sup>9</sup>Ivie et al., “Overcoming Fear and Building Trust With Immigrant Communities and Crimes Victims.”</p>
<p><sup>10</sup>See Leslye Orloff and Olivia Garcia, “<a href="https://niwaplibrary.wcl.american.edu/pubs/cult-man-ch1-1-dynamicsdomesticviolence2016/">Dynamics of Domestic Violence Experienced by Immigrant Victims</a>,” in <em>Breaking Barriers: A Complete Guide to Legal Rights and Resources for Battered Immigrants</em> (National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project, 2013); Alicia Cara and Hema Sarangapani, “<a href="https://niwaplibrary.wcl.american.edu/pubs/ch12-genderbasedasylum/">Sexual Assault Survivors and Gender-Based Asylum</a>,” in <em>Empowering Survivors: Legal Rights of Immigrant Victims of Sexual Assault </em>(National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project, 2014); <em><a href="https://polarisproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Polaris-Analysis-of-2021-Data-from-the-National-Human-Trafficking-Hotline.pdf">Polaris Analysis of 2021 Data from the National Human Trafficking Hotline</a></em> (Polaris report based on National Human Trafficking Hotline data retrieved in 2022); Meaghan Fitzpatrick and Leslye E Orloff, “<a href="https://elibrary.law.psu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1143&context=jlia">Abused, Abandoned, or Neglected: Legal Options for Recent Immigrant Women and Girls</a>,” <em>Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs</em> 4, no. 2 (2016): 614–685.</p>
<p><sup>11</sup>See Nik Theodore, <em><a href="https://www.policylink.org/sites/default/files/INSECURE_COMMUNITIES_REPORT_FINAL.PDF">Insecure Communities: Latino Perceptions of Police Involvement in Immigration Enforcement</a></em> (Univ. of Illinois, 2013).</p>
<p><sup>12</sup>For departments interested in creating a U visa certification and T visa declaration policy, see “Model Policy for Interactions with Immigrant Victims of Crime and Human Trafficking & Signing of U Visa Certifications and T Visa Declarations” in <em><a href="https://niwaplibrary.wcl.american.edu/pubs/u-t-visa-toolkit-law-enforcement-prosecutor">U Visa Certification and T Visa Declaration Toolkit For Law Enforcement Agencies and Prosecutors</a> </em>(National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project, 2017), 113–124.</p>
<p><sup>13</sup>San Francisco Police Department, General Order 5.15, <a href="https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/sites/default/files/2018-11/DGO5.15%20Enforcement%20of%20Immigration%20Laws.pdf">Enforcement of Immigration Laws</a> (2017).</p>
<p><sup>14</sup>Minneapolis, MN Code of Ordinances Title 2 §§ 19.10–19.50 (2007); Minneapolis Police Special Order 9-114, <a href="https://www.minneapolismn.gov/media/-www-content-assets/documents/MPD-Policy-and-Procedure-Manual.pdf">Police Authority in Immigration Matters</a> (2018).</p>
<p> </p>
<hr />
<p>Please cite as</p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;">Giovanni Veliz et al., “Enhancing Police Services in Immigrant Communities: The Successful Use of U and T Visas in San Francisco and Minneapolis,” <em>Police Chief Online</em>, August 21, 2024.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The post <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/enhancing-police-services-immigrant-communities/">Enhancing Police Services in Immigrant Communities</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org">Police Chief Magazine</a>.</p>
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<title>Using AI to Enhance Victim Response</title>
<link>https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/using-ai-victim-response/</link>
<comments>https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/using-ai-victim-response/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Margaret White]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 31 Jul 2024 12:00:45 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Bonus Online Article]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Topics]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Victim Services]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[AI]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[bonus article]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[chatbot]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[victim services]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/?p=78599</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<p>Many police agencies face staffing and resource constraints that require officers to prioritize violent crimes over other types of crimes for investigation and victim support. Police-based victim service providers face similar constraints and often focus on specific types of violent crime, such as sexual assault or domestic violence. Even though crimes like burglary can result in serious financial losses and an array of psychological harms for victims, including anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and fear for safety, most residential burglaries go unsolved. Victims rely on police to recover stolen property, apprehend perpetrators, and help restore their sense of safety, and when this does not happen, the lack of attention and investigative progress can leave victims feeling dissatisfied with and less trusting of police. Victims may then be less likely to report future crimes or assist police with investigations.</p>
<p>Artificial intelligence (AI) provides a potential solution for police agencies faced with the challenge of limited resources for addressing certain types of crime and providing information and support to victims. Existing research in other fields suggests that virtual assistants, also known as chatbots (chat + robot), can be a useful tool for providing customer support, automating routine functions, and providing answers to standard questions.<sup>1</sup> With funding from the U.S. Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime, and in collaboration with the Minnesota Alliance on Crime, the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), and the Greensboro Police Department (GPD) in North Carolina, RTI International developed and tested the Enhanced Virtual Victim Assistant (EVVA), which was designed to address the lack of justice-system based resources and responses available for burglary victims.</p>
<p>The pilot test of EVVA with GPD, along with reflections from GPD on their experiences implementing the chatbot, presents important considerations for the development of a chatbot.</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/using-ai-victim-response/">Using AI to Enhance Victim Response</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org">Police Chief Magazine</a>.</p>
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p> </p>
<p>Many police agencies face staffing and resource constraints that require officers to prioritize violent crimes over other types of crimes for investigation and victim support. Police-based victim service providers face similar constraints and often focus on specific types of violent crime, such as sexual assault or domestic violence. Even though crimes like burglary can result in serious financial losses and an array of psychological harms for victims, including anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and fear for safety, most residential burglaries go unsolved. Victims rely on police to recover stolen property, apprehend perpetrators, and help restore their sense of safety, and when this does not happen, the lack of attention and investigative progress can leave victims feeling dissatisfied with and less trusting of police. Victims may then be less likely to report future crimes or assist police with investigations.</p>
<p>Artificial intelligence (AI) provides a potential solution for police agencies faced with the challenge of limited resources for addressing certain types of crime and providing information and support to victims. Existing research in other fields suggests that virtual assistants, also known as chatbots (chat + robot), can be a useful tool for providing customer support, automating routine functions, and providing answers to standard questions.<sup>1</sup> With funding from the U.S. Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime, and in collaboration with the Minnesota Alliance on Crime, the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), and the Greensboro Police Department (GPD) in North Carolina, RTI International developed and tested the Enhanced Virtual Victim Assistant (EVVA), which was designed to address the lack of justice-system based resources and responses available for burglary victims.</p>
<p>The pilot test of EVVA with GPD, along with reflections from GPD on their experiences implementing the chatbot, presents important considerations for the development of a chatbot.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #0dadbf;">What Is a Chatbot and What Are Its Uses and Benefits?</span></h3>
<p>Chatbots are computer programs that hold online “chats” or conversation via text or through a website. Chatbots simulate conversations that a user would typically have with a human representative from a company or agency. They range in sophistication from rudimentary programs that answer a simple query with a single-line response to digital assistants that leverage AI and machine learning (ML) to learn over time and deliver increasing levels of personalization as they gather and process information.</p>
<p><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-31032 alignleft" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/handthoughtbubblesclouds-300x268.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="268" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/handthoughtbubblesclouds-300x268.jpg 300w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/handthoughtbubblesclouds-768x685.jpg 768w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/handthoughtbubblesclouds.jpg 850w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Often chatbots are used to provide customer service, such as answering questions about an order from an online store or helping users to navigate an administrative process for a government agency, like a department of motor vehicles. Chatbots have been used across a variety of industries to automate repetitive tasks, respond to frequently asked questions (FAQs), or collect information from individuals. Chatbots can help to reduce organizational burden through reducing staff workloads and improving efficiencies in carrying out administrative tasks by answering FAQs that would otherwise come through the office via phone, email, or in-person inquiries. They can provide more timely responses to questions than someone would get if they had to wait for a staff person to return an email, text, or phone message.</p>
<p>Although chatbots are often used in the customer service industry, their potential benefits extend to the criminal justice system. Chatbots have the potential to improve efficiency, redefine engagement, reduce administrative costs, and—possibly—expand access to information related to justice system processes. There are examples of chatbots being used across the criminal justice system for police, courts, community supervision and victim service purposes.<sup>2</sup> Within police agencies, chatbots have primarily been used for recruitment and investigation. On the recruitment side, agencies like the Los Angeles, California, Police Department use chatbots to answer FAQs related to officer recruitment and hiring.<sup>3</sup> On the investigation side, agencies in New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; and Boston have used chatbots posing as someone selling sex to identify and deter buyers and, in the cases where the individual poses as a minor, combat child sex trafficking.<sup>4</sup></p>
<p>In the community, chatbots have also been used to support victims of crime through identifying sources of support and helping victims document instances of crime to aid future reporting or legal options. For instance, ITRC created a virtual assistant to assist victims of identity theft by providing information about how to safely store and secure documents and personal information and key steps an individual may take to mitigate the impact of identity theft. Although chatbot users can request to speak with a live expert advisor during business hours, the chatbot makes the information and support available 24/7. Beyond the United States, in countries such as Switzerland, Thailand, and the Philippines, chatbots have been designed to support victims of domestic violence and sexual harassment with resources or documentation of events.</p>
<p>Based on the current uses of chatbots, this technology has the potential to enhance police departments’ ability to respond to certain victim needs, such as answering common questions about the investigative process and providing information and referrals that may assist victims in their recovery. Chatbots offer the opportunity to improve the police’s ability to respond to the informational needs of victims and refer them to community-based support and services without an additional drain on limited resources.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #0dadbf;"><strong>Developing and Testing <span style="color: #0dadbf;">EVVA</span></strong></span></h3>
<p>A chatbot is not an “off-the-shelf” technology; it requires development, customization, and human oversight to ensure it provides relevant information and is protected against its misuse or potential privacy and security risks. RTI’s chatbot, EVVA, is the first known chatbot intended for use by police agencies to provide information directly to victims, specifically victims of residential burglary who reported the incident to police. Because EVVA is the first use case of its kind, RTI staff spent extensive time determining what information and support would be useful to victims of burglary, which of these needs a chatbot could address, what common questions victims would ask of police, and how to ensure that police practices related to the investigation were accurately communicated by the chatbot.</p>
<p>To ensure that the perspectives of persons who experienced a burglary were represented in the development of EVVA, the RTI team sought victim input at all stages of the project. Additionally, the team routinely engaged in conversations with police agencies throughout development and testing to ensure that EVVA would provide value and could be easily implemented.</p>
<p>RTI staff first conducted interviews with victims. Based on these interviews, the team identified possible scenarios or reasons why someone would interact with EVVA. From there, the staff worked with several police agencies to better understand how the chatbot should be programmed to respond to these requests. EVVA was programmed to respond to more than 60 types of questions that burglary victims commonly have. Examples of the information that EVVA can provide include the following:</p>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul style="list-style-type: square; font-size: 18px; color: #0dadbf;">
<li><span style="color: #333333;">How to request a copy of a police report</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">How to get contact information for the department or investigator</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">How to file an insurance claim</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">Ways to secure a home after a burglary</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">What to do if documents with personal information were stolen during the burglary</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">What type of community-based services are available if the victim needs different types of assistance</span></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>After building the chatbot to address these key victim requests, RTI conducted usability testing with about 30 residential burglary victims to see how they interacted with the bot and to gather feedback on how EVVA responded to their inquiries and requests. Finally, after the feedback was incorporated, RTI conducted an extensive pilot test with GPD.</p>
<p>GPD has a long history of embracing opportunities to participate in research and technical assistance projects, including several with RTI. Because of this, and GPD’s well-established thought leadership in innovative policing, the RTI project team approached the department about the opportunity to integrate EVVA into GPD’s technical and operational systems. GPD leadership worked with the project team to engage in discussions about the utility of EVVA and how the chatbot could be technically and operationally integrated across a wide range of divisions. Once GPD officially agreed to participate in the pilot test, they provided the team with the access needed to integrate the chatbot with the records management system (RMS). To enable RMS functionality, GPD provided an extract of burglary-related case data, uploaded daily to a secure online file hosting service accessible by the chatbot. EVVA could then pull from the RMS to provide victims with direct, up-to-date information about their case based on their report number. The information pulled from the RMS was restricted to that which would be publicly available if requested at the agency. RTI worked with GPD to ensure that EVVA provided correct information about processes for requesting a police report or a safety check and that EVVA could offer the same referrals to local community-based services that officers and other GPD staff would typically provide.</p>
<table class="alignright" style="width: 435px; border-collapse: collapse; background-color: #ffffff; border-color: #4A646C;" border="4">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th style="width: 100%; background-color: #ffffff; border-style: solid; border-color: #4a646c; vertical-align: middle;"><strong>Figure 1: EVVA Sticky Note</strong></th>
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<td style="width: 100%;"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-78600 size-full" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/EVVA-sticky-Greensboro.png" alt="" width="435" height="321" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/EVVA-sticky-Greensboro.png 435w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/EVVA-sticky-Greensboro-300x221.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 435px) 100vw, 435px" /></td>
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<p>RTI and GPD also worked together to develop low-burden, affordable mechanisms for officers to provide information about EVVA to victims and to train officers on how and when to provide this information. The RTI team created sticky note pads, designed to fit in an officer’s shirt pocket, with information for victims on how to access EVVA. The notes, as seen in Figure 1, provided both the web address as well as a QR code that could be scanned with a smartphone camera to access EVVA. Officers can peel a sticky note off the pad and hand it to a victim or stick it on a copy of the police report.</p>
<p>For training officers and staff on sharing information about EVVA, the RTI team created a short training video, shared through YouTube, that officers and staff could easily view at any time. The training could also be shared during roll call or in training modules. Finally, RTI worked with GPD leadership to implement a tracking process to ensure that officers were providing the sticky notes to burglary victims. Officers were instructed to add a brief note in the incident report, which would then be reviewed by the Crime Analysis Unit to identify if officers needed to be retrained or reminded about sharing the resource with victims.</p>
<p>The pilot test launched in Greensboro on August 1, 2022, and ended just over a year later. The launch was accompanied by press releases from RTI and GPD, which received media coverage and demonstrated the department’s commitment to and genuine interest in the project.<sup>5</sup> Figure 2 shows what the EVVA interface looked like for victims who accessed and used the chatbot.</p>
<table style="width: 872px; border-collapse: collapse; border-color: #4A646C; background-color: #ffffff;" border="1">
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<tr>
<td style="width: 100%; border-style: solid; border-color: #4A646C;"><strong>Figure 2: Screenshot of EVVA GPD Home Screen</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 100%;"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-78606" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/EVVA-Screenshot.jpg" alt="" width="870" height="519" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/EVVA-Screenshot.jpg 870w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/EVVA-Screenshot-300x179.jpg 300w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/EVVA-Screenshot-768x458.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 870px) 100vw, 870px" /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
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<p>Throughout the pilot test, GPD had 479 officer referrals to EVVA. These referrals resulted in 81 victim conversations with the chatbot. The top victim question for EVVA action was asking about next steps in the investigation, followed closely by asking for the contact information of their investigator, how to receive a police report, and the status of their case. As part of the process of continually training EVVA to better interpret and respond to questions, RTI staff manually reviewed each of the conversations to assess user satisfaction with EVVA’s responses. The team coded conversations based on whether they ended with a user getting a response and leaving the chatbot or a user expressing frustration and seeming unable to get an answer that addressed their needs. Based on this coding, the majority of users were satisfied with the conversation (71.6 percent).</p>
<h3><span style="color: #0dadbf;"><strong>GPD Reflections on Implementing EVVA</strong></span></h3>
<p>GPD realized the importance of AI and the possibilities that EVVA could offer in responding to victims. GPD was able to customize the responses to many anticipated questions from victims that would best suit the agency. EVVA did provide a thorough response to often difficult questions. For example, when a victim of a burglary loses personal identifying documents during the theft, detectives would spend a considerable amount of time discussing the steps to prevent future loss from ID theft. EVVA could provide the resources and links to help with ID fraud. The messages provided to victims are always a consistent response; whereas, a live person may forget to mention a resource or have difficulty providing links to available online resources. EVVA could provide this uniformly to victims.</p>
<p>During the implementation stage, GPD continued to develop ways to help victims of burglaries access EVVA. One of those ways included adding the sticky note graphics to the agency’s existing Victim Rights Forms. This form is provided to any burglary victim after a report is filed to include important information about the case, providing a case number for the case, and phone numbers for the Criminal Investigations Divisions (CID), allowing the victim to refer to it at a later time if needed. GPD felt that in some instances, when further context was needed or answers included certain agency-specific terms, which may be confusing, it would be easier for a GPD employee to discuss it with the victim at a later time. In these situations, EVVA would ultimately refer the victim to the CID to speak about case status directly. A GPD victim advocate or a detective could then explain the case disposition, providing context or a more in-depth response. Overall GPD had positive interactions involving EVVA and believes that the chatbot could be expanded in other places in the agency.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #0dadbf;"><strong>Important Considerations for the Use of Chatbots for Responding to Victims</strong></span></h3>
<p>The development and testing of EVVA revealed many considerations that agencies should keep in mind when considering the potential uses of this technology.</p>
<p>When considering developing a chatbot, it is crucial to think through possible misuses of the chatbot and ensure that the information provided will not compromise someone’s safety or security. During interviews and usability testing of EVVA, victims expressed the desire to have a chatbot communicate information specific to their case. Although EVVA was able to link to the RMS and provided limited case information, which was one of the most common reasons users engaged with the chatbot, the project team agreed that EVVA should share only publicly available information that anyone could request directly from the agency. Given limitations on a chatbot’s ability to confirm someone’s identity, the release of information that would require proof of a person’s identity to meet the request was not programmed into EVVA. When considering future use cases of the chatbot within the criminal justice system, careful consideration of the types of information the chatbot provides is crucial to ensure that individuals’ information is protected and that information that could compromise someone’s safety is not released.</p>
<table class=" alignleft" style="width: 50%; border-style: none;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><em><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 36px; color: #0dadbf;">“Because EVVA was designed to provide support to victims of crime, the tone and ‘voice’ of the chatbot was particularly important.”</span></em></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Best practices in chatbot development suggest that there should be clear communication about the privacy and security of the information users provide. This was particularly important for EVVA’s development because, as a tool implemented by the police, the information was not confidential. Informing users early on that chats would be shared with the department should they disclose additional case information or details was important given research that suggests clarity on data security and privacy practices are linked to whether users trust a chatbot.</p>
<p>Because EVVA was designed to provide support to victims of crime, the tone and “voice” of the chatbot was particularly important. Guidance on the development of chatbots suggests that it is important for chatbots to not be overly humanized, while still providing empathic responses. Chatbots that just provide information without expressions of sympathy tend to be less favorably received by users.<sup>6</sup> Additionally, usability testers of EVVA emphasized the importance of messages that validated their reactions to burglary and expressed empathy.</p>
<p>Not all topics or conversations are appropriate for a chatbot to engage in with victims, such as sensitive topics that require emotional support, topics that require handling of non-public data, or cases where a chatbot does not understand what the user is trying to achieve. In these cases, having live victim services personnel available to continue the conversation may be appropriate to enhance the user experience. This process, referred to as chatbot/human handoff, can look like providing contact information for a human or transferring the chat directly to live support. Incorporating live human access increases the cost of providing a chatbot considerably, especially if the desire is to have this resource available 24/7. However, if resources are available, this feature can help improve the quality of a user’s experience with a chatbot.</p>
<p>In addition, considerations around the intended user of the chatbot are an important part of the development of a chatbot in any setting. For instance, considering if and in what languages the chatbot can be accessible to users should be informed by the population that the police agency services. The pilot test version of EVVA was able to respond only to questions in English. Police agencies that serve communities with sizable non-English-speaking populations may consider extending the development of EVVA to enable multilingual conversations. Adapting conversations should be done in partnership with individuals in the community who speak the language to ensure that the translation is relevant to the dialect and terminology used in the particular community. Another issue that came up during the pilot test was the lack of familiarity with the concept of a chatbot. Victims who have limited access to internet-enabled devices or limited technological skill for using things like QR codes may have challenges accessing EVVA, since it is a web-based application. Technological challenges can be mitigated to some degree by departments providing brief instructions to victims on how to access EVVA. However, this also requires that officers understand what a chatbot is and have practiced with one enough to explain it clearly to a victim. Thus, it is important to identify the intended users of a chatbot and assess whether the chatbot will be accessible to them and meet most of their needs.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #0dadbf;"><strong>Other Potential Applications for Chatbot Technology</strong></span></h3>
<p>The potential applications for chatbot technology within policing are extensive. A chatbot could be used to recruit future applicants to the agency. When potential applicants are researching which agency to apply to, especially within an increasingly challenging market, agencies should provide answers to FAQs quickly and easily. Having a chatbot available to answer salary and benefits questions 24/7 allows the applicant to receive the information when they want it. The chatbot could also help applicants navigate the lengthy application process.</p>
<p>Expanding chatbots to include other types of crimes such as fraud-related offenses or motor vehicle thefts could provide similar assistance to the victims. In fraud cases, the chatbot could help victims secure their identity from future theft. In motor vehicle theft cases, the chatbot could inform victims of the proper steps for filing a claim with their insurance company. The chatbot could be used to further investigations by integrating Crime Stoppers programs and tip lines to allow residents to quickly provide tips on illegal activity or information on wanted subjects that could then be provided to assigned detectives for follow-up.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-66914" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-WCO_017-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-WCO_017-225x300.jpg 225w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-WCO_017-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-WCO_017-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-WCO_017-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-WCO_017-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" />Providing QR codes or a small kiosk in the lobby of agencies could help to provide customer services to residents. Often websites are limited, out of date, or difficult to navigate to find the information needed. A chatbot could help answer questions or guide users who wish to make a request. Examples of some of the questions a chatbot could provide information on include</p>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul style="list-style-type: square; font-size: 18px; color: #0dadbf;">
<li><span style="color: #333333;">How do I hire an off-duty officer for an event?</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">How do I request additional traffic enforcement in my neighborhood?</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">How do I request an officer to speak at a community meeting?</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">Whom should I speak to about a problem in my community?</span></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>The success of a chatbot depends on its acceptance by potential users and the messaging provided to the community. An additional way to publicize the program could be the addition of QR codes to police vehicles, other city-owned vehicles, or mass transportation so residents will see the code and hopefully trust and use it to better connect with their department. The increasing number of individuals open to communicating with AI instead of a live person offers police more ways to communicate using modern technology. The connections made between the community and policing agencies using AI can help improve interactions and hopefully provide positive experiences on which to build.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #0dadbf;"><strong>Conclusion</strong></span></h3>
<p>There are many opportunities for a chatbot to be incorporated into a police agency’s daily functions, including assisting victims of residential burglaries. Advancements in AI, such as the development of empathetic technology and large language models like ChatGPT, will continue to drive chatbot development and increase the potential for this technology to benefit police agencies and victims of crime.<sup>7</sup> <span style="font-family: Webdings; color: #0dadbf;">d</span></p>
<p><strong>Notes:</strong></p>
<p><sup>1</sup>Solomon Negash, Terry Ryan, and Magid Igbaria, “Quality and Effectiveness in Web-Based Customer Support Systems,” <em>Information & Management</em> 40, no. 8 (September 2003): 757–768.</p>
<p><sup>2</sup>Meghan Camello, Michael Planty, and Jaclyn Houston-Kolnik, <a href="https://cjtec.org/files/chatbots-criminal-justice"><em>Chatbots in the Criminal Justice System: An Overview of Chatbots and Their Underlying Technologies and Applications</em></a> (National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, 2021).</p>
<p><sup>3</sup>Theo Douglas, “<a href="https://www.govtech.com/products/Los-Angeles-Chatbot-Deputized-to-Help-with-Police-Recruitment.html">Los Angeles Chatbot Deputized to Help With Police Recruitment</a>,” <em>Government Technology</em>, February 16, 2018.</p>
<p><sup>4</sup>Tina Rosenberg, “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/09/opinion/ai-joins-the-campaign-against-sex-trafficking.html">A.I. Joins the Campaign Against Sex Trafficking</a>,” <em>New York Times</em>, April 9, 2019.</p>
<p><sup>5</sup>Peter Stratta, “<a href="https://abc45.com/news/local/greensboro-police-implement-chatbot-technology-burglary-victims">Greensboro Police Implement Chatbot Technology for Burglary Victims</a>,” ABC News, August 30, 2022.</p>
<p><sup>6</sup>Bingjie Liu and S. Shayam Sundar, “Should Machines Express Sympathy and Empathy? Experiments with a Health Advice Chatbot,” <em>Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking</em> 21, no. 10 (October 2018): 625–636.</p>
<p><sup>7</sup>Camello, Planty, and Houston-Kolnik, <a href="https://cjtec.org/files/chatbots-criminal-justice"><em>Chatbots in the Criminal Justice System</em></a>.</p>
<hr />
<p>Please cite as</p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;">Lynn Langton et al., “<a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/using-ai-victim-response">Using AI to Enhance Victim Response</a>,” <em>Police Chief Online</em>, July 31, 2024.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The post <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/using-ai-victim-response/">Using AI to Enhance Victim Response</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org">Police Chief Magazine</a>.</p>
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<title>From Evidence to Actionable Victim Engagement</title>
<link>https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/from-evidence-to-actionable-victim-engagement/</link>
<comments>https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/from-evidence-to-actionable-victim-engagement/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Margaret White]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 01 Jul 2024 12:00:14 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Education & Training]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Research & Evidence-Based Policing]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Topics]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Victim Services]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Trauma-informed training]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[victim-centered approaches]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/?p=78145</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<p>It is not unusual for victims to find it difficult to engage with the police after experiencing an assault. Often, victims fear they will not be believed or that reporting the crime will not have any effect.</p>
<p>How can the police best help victims engage with the system after an assault? The answer lies in creating best practices for victim contact. Three Department of Justice–funded research projects are looking at this from a variety of new perspectives.</p>
<h3><strong>Victim Engagement Can Be Traumatic</strong></h3>
<p>Sexual assault kits contain crucial evidence. Unfortunately, collecting the evidence contained in them can be intrusive and re-traumatizing for victims who must undergo medical forensic exams soon after their assault, at a time when they may not be ready to report the crime to the police. Despite the importance of collecting semen, blood, saliva, and hair samples contained in sexual assault kits for criminal investigations and prosecutions, evidence is not routinely sent for testing and forensic DNA analysis. Police and crime labs can have large backlogs of untested kits. Delays in testing not only hinder the pursuit of justice but also can perpetuate or exacerbate victim trauma.</p>
<p>Influxes of public money, coupled with persistent public outcry, have prompted many jurisdictions to expedite the processing of their backlogged kits, resulting in the identification of thousands of perpetrators through hits in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). But reopening these cases often happens months or even years after the original crime. Police and prosecutors must contact victims to inform them that their evidence had never been analyzed and that their cases may be reopened, a process that can be deeply re-traumatizing.</p>
<p>Dr. Rebecca Campbell, professor of psychology at Michigan State University, focuses on understanding the consequences of unprocessed sexual assault kits on victims. Her work studies the prolonged psychological distress and sense of injustice of survivors who have been denied prompt case resolution and closure.</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/from-evidence-to-actionable-victim-engagement/">From Evidence to Actionable Victim Engagement</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org">Police Chief Magazine</a>.</p>
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>It is not unusual for victims to find it difficult to engage with the police after experiencing an assault. Often, victims fear they will not be believed or that reporting the crime will not have any effect.</p>
<p>How can the police best help victims engage with the system after an assault? The answer lies in creating best practices for victim contact. Three Department of Justice–funded research projects are looking at this from a variety of new perspectives.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #0a7e8c;"><strong>Victim Engagement Can Be Traumatic</strong></span></h3>
<p>Sexual assault kits contain crucial evidence. Unfortunately, collecting the evidence contained in them can be intrusive and re-traumatizing for victims who must undergo medical forensic exams soon after their assault, at a time when they may not be ready to report the crime to the police. Despite the importance of collecting semen, blood, saliva, and hair samples contained in sexual assault kits for criminal investigations and prosecutions, evidence is not routinely sent for testing and forensic DNA analysis. Police and crime labs can have large backlogs of untested kits. Delays in testing not only hinder the pursuit of justice but also can perpetuate or exacerbate victim trauma.</p>
<p>Influxes of public money, coupled with persistent public outcry, have prompted many jurisdictions to expedite the processing of their backlogged kits, resulting in the identification of thousands of perpetrators through hits in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). But reopening these cases often happens months or even years after the original crime. Police and prosecutors must contact victims to inform them that their evidence had never been analyzed and that their cases may be reopened, a process that can be deeply re-traumatizing.</p>
<p>Dr. Rebecca Campbell, professor of psychology at Michigan State University, focuses on understanding the consequences of unprocessed sexual assault kits on victims. Her work studies the prolonged psychological distress and sense of injustice of survivors who have been denied prompt case resolution and closure.</p>
<p>Dr. Campbell knows just how important it is to re-earn survivors’ trust. She previously served as the lead researcher for the Detroit Sexual Assault Kit Action Research Project, a four-year multidisciplinary study of untested rape kits, which was funded by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ).<sup>1</sup> In 2009, that research found 8,717 kits in Detroit, Michigan, that had never been sent for testing, primarily due to years of understaffing and insufficient resources.</p>
<p>In her recent research, Dr. Campbell asked, “What do we know and what do we still need to know about reengagement with victims after a CODIS hit?” She interviewed sexual assault survivors in Detroit, all of whom had kits that had been collected but not sent for analysis. The kits were found in the Detroit backlog, sent for analysis, and selected for victim notification after a CODIS hit. Their legal cases were then reopened, prosecuted, decided, and closed. Of the 112 survivors who fit the criteria of the study, 32 chose to take part, a testament to how difficult it is for these victims to reengage about their assault. This may be particularly true when it comes to reengaging with the system.</p>
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<td style="width: 100%; text-align: right;"><strong><span style="color: #0071ce; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic;">“If you break that trust, you have to re-earn it.”</span></strong><br style="color: #707070; font-size: 20px; font-style: italic;" /><span style="color: #0071ce;">—Dr. Rebecca Campbell</span></td>
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<p>Based on study findings, Dr. Campbell advocates for victim-centered approaches and trauma-informed training of police personnel to improve communication between survivors, the police, and medical professionals. She has also highlighted systemic changes such as policy reforms, increased resources, and enhanced collaboration among agencies who work with victims of violence to tackle the backlog and support survivors effectively.</p>
<p>Describing the program for reengaging victims, Dr. Campbell said, “The process is the outcome. How people are treated along the way is what matters most.”<sup>2</sup> Her research shows the detrimental effects of untested kits on victims’ well-being and underscores the necessity of comprehensive reform. Training is vitally important because it allows departments to change harmful practices and ultimately resolve these cases more successfully with the help of the victims.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #0a7e8c;"><strong>Law Enforcement Benefits from Trauma-Informed Training</strong></span></h3>
<p>Dr. Cortney Franklin, assistant professor in the Department of Culture, Society and Justice at the University of Idaho, examines how trauma-informed training for police affects sexual assault case processing and police response to gender-based violence. According to Dr. Franklin, “We must ask ‘What can we do to enhance the victim experience?’”<sup>3</sup></p>
<p>Dr. Franklin’s research on whether mandatory trauma-informed training improved trauma misperceptions and response among police officers was the first of its kind in the United States. She surveyed officers before and after receiving training that covered survivor-centered police response to sexual and domestic violence, neurobiology of trauma, victim resource referral, and gender bias. The training also included routine in-service content on state and federal laws, cultural diversity, investigative topics, and crisis intervention required by the state’s law enforcement commission.</p>
<p>Dr. Franklin examined the degree to which the training increased the accuracy of the officers’ knowledge about trauma. In addition to officers’ self-reported knowledge, her research examined 1,200 sexual assault cases to assess if training affected how they were processed and proceeded. In particular, she looked for differences in police response and investigative stages before and after training by evaluating patterns in complainant characteristics (e.g., demographics, credibility indicators, participation decisions), suspect characteristics (e.g., demographics, relationship to the complainant), and case characteristics (e.g., strength of evidence indicators, case seriousness measures).</p>
<p>Dr. Franklin’s research team found that most officers had some misperceptions about what people’s response to trauma looks like prior to training. Some officers endorsed the view that “real” victims present with emotional expressiveness, behavioral hysteria, prompt reporting, and linear recollection of the assault. But this is not accurate, and these myths are dangerous; when a survivor does not display these characteristics, they may be disbelieved and stigmatized, which increases their likelihood of secondary victimization by the system. Officers who took trauma-informed training reported significantly decreased levels of trauma misperceptions after training compared to before. Moreover, the officer’s sex (male or female) and years of service were significant predictors of trauma misperceptions before training. Male officers and officers with less job tenure reported higher levels of trauma misperceptions. Female officers and officers with more job tenure reported increased accuracy of trauma presentation knowledge.</p>
<table class="alignright" style="width: 507px; background-color: #ffffff; border-style: solid; border-color: #f5f6f8;" border="4">
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<td width="623"><strong>Figure 1:</strong> Case file data comparisons show post-training improvements in the percentage of tagged evidence, investigator assignments to cases, and the provision of service referral information (n = 464).</td>
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<td width="623"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-78149 size-full" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Pilkington-Figure-1-PC-7-2024.jpg" alt="bar graph " width="507" height="268" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Pilkington-Figure-1-PC-7-2024.jpg 507w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Pilkington-Figure-1-PC-7-2024-300x159.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 507px) 100vw, 507px" /></td>
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<p>Why do interactions between victims and officers matter? It is in the interest of the police department to improve interactions with victims so officers do not cause more harm to the victims than what they have already experienced, and so officers can be a helpful resource to victims. Also, training on better communication and a more empathic response to victims has been shown to strengthen case processing, meaning that post-training cases had more tagged evidence, were more likely to be sent to specialized investigators for follow-up, and had more officers engaged in victim advocacy referrals (Figure 1).<sup>4</sup> Dr. Franklin’s results highlight how trauma-informed training shows promise in advancing survivor-focused police response to sexual assault.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #0a7e8c;"><strong>An Unconventional Approach</strong></span></h3>
<p>In related research, Dr. Bradley Campbell, associate professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and a faculty member in the Southern Police Institute at the University of Louisville, studies police investigations, decision-making, training evaluation, and response to victims. Through his NIJ-funded research project, he trained police officers on how to interact with trauma survivors and assessed both the short- and long-term impact of that training on the officers and the survivors.</p>
<p>Dr. Campbell trained police officers to respond to victims of violence using victim-centered, trauma-informed (VCTI) interview techniques. His unconventional program used actors who were trained to portray survivors of sexual assault to provide officers with hands-on experience in interviewing victims. The interdisciplinary team included a unique partnership between the Kentucky Department of Criminal Justice Training, the Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs, and the University of Louisville’s Criminal Justice and Theatre Arts departments.</p>
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<td style="width: 100%; text-align: right;"><strong><span style="color: #0071ce; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic;">“The use of trained actors was integral in putting the skills learned into practical application. The actor piece gives interviewers a chance to receive feedback of how the survivor perceived the interaction. Often as interviewers, we may believe we’re making the survivor feel more comfortable or less traumatized, but our wording or body language may actually be hindering our efforts.”</span></strong><br style="color: #707070; font-size: 20px; font-style: italic;" /><span style="color: #0071ce;">— Sergeant Jeremiah Harville,<br />
Lexington Police Department, KY</span></td>
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</table>
<p>They taught officers to conduct VCTI interviews with victims during a 40-hour training program. In total, 113 trainees were randomly assigned to a treatment (trauma-informed) or control (standard training) group. Researchers conducted pre- and post-training survey assessments of officers’ attitudes and understanding of the material and capitalized on a unique opportunity to assess officers’ behavioral changes through both within-subjects and between-subjects comparisons of officer performance in mock interviews.</p>
<p>The results showed that VCTI training improved outcomes and positively affected officers. Researchers saw improved perceptions of victim behaviors and increased comfort when interviewing victims of sexual assault. The researchers recommended that all jurisdictions add VCTI training to their curricula. Although this may present a significant investment for many agencies, shorter 16- or 24-hour trainings may also be beneficial. Moreover, trauma-informed interview training with actors may prove beneficial in other situations such as domestic violence cases, traffic stops, and de-escalation.</p>
<aside class="pullout alignleft">IACP Resources</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><a href="https://www.theiacp.org/projects/promising-practices-in-law-enforcement-victim-support" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Promising Practices in Law Enforcement Victim Support</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.theiacp.org/projects/enhancing-law-enforcement-response-to-victims-elerv" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Enhancing Law Enforcement Response to Victims (ELERV)</a></li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://www.theiacp.org"><strong>theIACP.org</strong></a></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/implementing-the-elerv-strategy/">Implementing the ELERV Strategy</a></li>
</ul>
<p></aside>
<p>Unsurprisingly, the police can find it challenging to encourage survivors of sexual assault to work with them after prior interactions yielded no resolution. But using trauma-informed techniques—both in repeated contact with survivors and upon first interview—can improve case closure rates and, more importantly, enhance victims’ emotional well-being. These efforts also strengthen communities and increase trust, which are critical factors in police effectiveness. <span style="font-family: Webdings;">d</span></p>
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<h4><strong>About This Article</strong></h4>
<p>This article is based on the following grants:</p>
<p>Rebecca Campbell (2018-SI-AX-0001) Office on Violence Against Women grant</p>
<p>Bradley Campbell (2018-VA-CX-0003) NIJ grant</p>
<p>Cortney Franklin (2016-SI-AX-0005) Office on Violence Against Women grant</p>
<p>Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (BJA)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-style: solid; border-color: #f5f6f8;" width="623">The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.</td>
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<p> </p>
<aside class="pullout pullout--wide alignleft"></p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft wp-image-78151 size-thumbnail" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Pilkington-GS-cropped-copy-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" /><big>Maya Metni Pilkington, PhD, supports the U.S. National Institute of Justice as a senior science writer.</big></aside>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Notes:</strong></p>
<p><sup>1</sup>Rebecca Campbell et al., <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/248680.pdf"><em>Detroit Sexual Assault Kit (SAK) Action Research Project (ARP)</em></a>, final report to the National Institute of Justice, NCJ 248680 (December 2015).</p>
<p><sup>2</sup>Rebecca Campbell, “Improving Victim Contact and Criminal Justice Response: The Impact of Law Enforcement and Victim Assistance Training” (conference panel, NIJ National Research Conference 2023, From Evidence to Action: Harnessing Research to Promote Safety and Justice, Arlington, VA, May 24, 2023).</p>
<p><sup>3</sup>Courtney Franklin, “Improving Victim Contact and Criminal Justice Response: The Impact of Law Enforcement and Victim Assistance Training” (conference panel, NIJ National Research Conference 2023, From Evidence to Action: Harnessing Research to Promote Safety and Justice, Arlington, VA, May 24, 2023).</p>
<p><sup>4</sup>Courtney Franklin et al., “Police Perceptions of Crime Victim Behaviors: A Trend Analysis Exploring Mandatory Training and Knowledge of Sexual and Domestic Violence Survivors’ Trauma Responses,” <em>Crime & Delinquency</em> 66 no. 8 (July 2020): 1055–1086.</p>
<hr />
<p>Please cite as</p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;">Maya Metni Pilkington, “From Evidence to Actionable Victim Engagement: How Research Is Improving Assault Victim Contact and Case Closure Rates,” <em>Police Chief</em> 91, no.7 (July 2024): 28–34.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px; text-align: center;">
<p>The post <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/from-evidence-to-actionable-victim-engagement/">From Evidence to Actionable Victim Engagement</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org">Police Chief Magazine</a>.</p>
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<title>Labor Trafficking Vulnerabilities and Victimization</title>
<link>https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/labor-trafficking-vulnerabilities-victimization/</link>
<comments>https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/labor-trafficking-vulnerabilities-victimization/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Margaret White]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 22 Jun 2023 13:54:06 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Bonus Online Article]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Crime & Violence]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Human & Civil Rights]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Investigations]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Topics]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Victim Services]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[bonus article]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[human trafficking]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[labor trafficking]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/?p=74145</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<p>Human trafficking, including both sex and labor trafficking, is a heinous crime that removes all humanity from victims and denies them basic human rights. According to the <em>2021 Trafficking in Persons Report</em> created by the U.S. State Department, human trafficking has become the second largest criminal activity across the globe, rapidly approaching drug trafficking.<sup>1</sup> Furthermore, according to Polaris, human trafficking is a global industry worth $150 billion dollars annually.<sup>2</sup> The International Labor Office indicates that roughly 25 million people globally are subjected to forced labor.<sup>3</sup> Recent research conducted by the University of Pennsylvania discovered that at least half-million people in the United States are currently living in the conditions of forced labor.<sup>4</sup> However, when people often envision human trafficking, typically their first thought is normally sex trafficking. Labor trafficking is frequently ignored, and most people would not recognize the signs of labor trafficking. For decades, both law enforcement agencies and academia have focused heavily on sex trafficking, gathering data and conducting research to assist in its prevention, with little attention directed at labor exploitation. Labor trafficking does exist in the United States; it is a form of modern-day slavery where individuals perform labor or services by means of force, fraud, or coercion. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center, trafficking and smuggling at the U.S. southwest border generates an estimated $6 billion annually.<sup>5</sup></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/labor-trafficking-vulnerabilities-victimization/">Labor Trafficking Vulnerabilities and Victimization</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org">Police Chief Magazine</a>.</p>
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p> </p>
<p>Human trafficking, including both sex and labor trafficking, is a heinous crime that removes all humanity from victims and denies them basic human rights. According to the <em>2021 Trafficking in Persons Report</em> created by the U.S. State Department, human trafficking has become the second largest criminal activity across the globe, rapidly approaching drug trafficking.<sup>1</sup> Furthermore, according to Polaris, human trafficking is a global industry worth $150 billion dollars annually.<sup>2</sup> The International Labor Office indicates that roughly 25 million people globally are subjected to forced labor.<sup>3</sup> Recent research conducted by the University of Pennsylvania discovered that at least half-million people in the United States are currently living in the conditions of forced labor.<sup>4</sup> However, when people often envision human trafficking, typically their first thought is normally sex trafficking. Labor trafficking is frequently ignored, and most people would not recognize the signs of labor trafficking. For decades, both law enforcement agencies and academia have focused heavily on sex trafficking, gathering data and conducting research to assist in its prevention, with little attention directed at labor exploitation. Labor trafficking does exist in the United States; it is a form of modern-day slavery where individuals perform labor or services by means of force, fraud, or coercion. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center, trafficking and smuggling at the U.S. southwest border generates an estimated $6 billion annually.<sup>5</sup></p>
<p>Labor cases are complex to investigate, and many agencies are not trained in state and in federal labor laws. The Human Trafficking Institute’s <em>2022 Federal Human Trafficking Report</em> shows U.S. federal prosecutors concentrated 94 percent of trafficking prosecutions on sex trafficking and6 percent on forced labor cases.<sup>6</sup> Conversely, experts have estimate that 70 percent of persons trafficked are in fact for forced labor. <sup>7</sup></p>
<p>Measuring the extent of human trafficking is often difficult, mainly because of its clandestine nature, thus making it more difficult to identify. To complicate the matter further, there are other barriers to early identification including language, citizenship status, distrust, and work-specific practices. According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, there have been 5,000 calls about labor trafficking in the United States, primarily identifying instances in domestic servitude, agriculture, traveling sales, restaurant/fast food, and the health and beauty service industries.<sup>8</sup></p>
<p>Human trafficking encompasses transnational trafficking, which involves transit between two or more countries, and domestic or internal trafficking, which occurs within a single country. Examining both U.S. citizens and non-citizens is an important aspect for law enforcement, particularly when understanding factors that “pull” and/or “push” someone into the forced labor funnel. “Push” (supply) factors are circumstances which tend to “push” the victims out of their current location while “pull” (demand) factors tend to attract the victims to those seeking to prey on such individuals. These factors occur because people are pushed out of their current environment for many reasons, including displacement due to conflict, violence, poverty, unstable housing, and unfulfillment of basic needs (food, safety, etc.). They are pulled into different locations that have better economic conditions with corresponding demands for labor<em>.</em> “Push factors” that provoke travel are often poverty, the lack of social or economic opportunity, and human rights infringements. Conflicts can create major displacements of people, leaving women and children vulnerable to trafficking. When the origin country is devastated by war and destination countries are free of similar conflict, potential victims will be pulled toward stability. Those who desire to improve their quality of life by leaving their home countries can be deceived by trafficking offenders who coerce and manipulate them.<sup>9</sup></p>
<h3><span style="color: #672767;"><strong>Barriers to Reporting</strong></span></h3>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-68486" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-615747606-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-615747606-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-615747606-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-615747606-768x512.jpg 768w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-615747606-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-615747606-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-615747606-272x182.jpg 272w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" />According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, the number of undocumented immigrant crossings at the U.S. southwest border surpassed 2.76 million people in 2022, shattering the previous record by more than 1 million.<sup>10</sup> Economic stressors on families in their own countries have put them at a larger risk for exploitation by smugglers and traffickers as they seek to migrate across the U.S. border. Polaris estimates that the U.S. industry most likely to victimize illegal immigrants is the agriculture industry and that six out of ten victims are from the Latin American community.<sup>11</sup> Exacerbating the problem is the recent pandemic, which has accelerated labor exploitation. Exact figures are difficult to ascertain because the crime is underreported, and research associated with the effects is lacking.</p>
<p>A major factor that makes uncovering and recording labor trafficking difficult is the victim’s hesitancy to come forward about labor exploitation. Victims who are smuggled into the United States or who were brought into the United States. on a visa that has since expired, fear detection and deportation and therefore are less likely to report their exploitation.<sup>12</sup> Being undocumented increases a victim’s vulnerability for exploitation by a trafficker.<sup>13</sup> The United States has been the leading destination for migrants for the last half century; therefore, migrants often become victims of labor trafficking because they are already fleeing poverty in their own countries and seeking economic opportunity, according to the 2022 <em>World Migration Report</em>.<sup>14</sup></p>
<p>Law enforcement identify few U.S. victims of labor trafficking because they are more likely to think of U.S. citizens as victims of sex trafficking.<sup>15</sup> U.S. citizens have a multitude of “push” factors (the idea of a better life) that increase the risk of labor trafficking victimization, including socio-economic backgrounds, cognitive disabilities, low levels of education, foreign substance addictions, and homelessness.<sup>16</sup> Traffickers exploit these factors, and the “pull factor” is the need for slave labor (even within the borders of the United States.). This is obtained by exploiting those in vulnerable positions. U.S. citizens face exploitative practices that fall under a range of labor law violations, such as wage and tip theft, hazardous working conditions, pay deductions, and legal exemptions such as agricultural industries, which are exempt from paying overtime and require workers to work long hours.<sup>17</sup></p>
<p>Runaway and homeless youth are commonly forced by employers to participate in door-to-door sales, begging networks, and peddling in dangerous areas over long workdays.<sup>18</sup> Victims receive little pay, limited food, and unhealthy living conditions in return for promises of stable housing and income.<sup>19</sup> The promise of a better life pulls them into the exploitation of labor, which can be coupled with pushing the victim into criminal activity. This criminal activity typically impedes the reporting of labor trafficking by victims. A multi-city study found that 81 percent of homeless youth who were victims of labor trafficking were also forced into drug dealing through coercion and violence.<sup>20</sup> Employers maintain power over youth workers through physical and psychological violence, yet authorities often do not label these cases as trafficking. This makes it difficult to identify cases because what is the youths are performing illegal acts and have been told by their traffickers that they can be arrested, thus discouraging reporting.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #672767;"><strong>Vulnerabilities of Immigrant Populations</strong></span></h3>
<p>Understanding the root cause as well as push and pull factors that funnel people into labor trafficking can lead to a better understanding of the vulnerabilities that immigrant populations in the U.S. face. The Polaris Project research noted that the National Human Trafficking Hotline identified between 2015-2018, 50% of persons trafficked for labor are from Latin America.<sup>21</sup> For instance, exploring a case involving “Marco” was conducted by Investigators with Hope for Justice, a global nongovernmental organization (NGO) combatting human trafficking (see sidebar).</p>
<aside class="pullout alignleft"></p>
<p>Marco was born in Guatemala, where his father was involved with drug traffickers. Those drug traffickers murdered his father and then gave Marco an ultimatum—join the drug gang or suffer the same fate. Because of crime and oppressive poverty in the region, Marco was left with little choice but to leave his mother and siblings behind in Guatemala and seek entry to and employment in the United States. Marco knew there were opportunities to make money, and like many immigrants, he hoped to earn enough money to bring his family to the United States in the future.</p>
<p>Like many before him, Marco paid a “coyote” (a person who smuggles human beings) $6,000 (U.S. dollars) to transport him to the U.S. border, a debt that Marco agreed to pay in monthly installments. The trip from Guatemala to Mexico took 4 days in a crowded bus, and it then took an additional 14 days to get to the U.S. border, entering via California. While reflecting on his journey to the United States, Marco stated it was harder to cross into Mexico from Guatemala than it was to cross into the United States from Mexico. Marco recalled minimal to no security at the U.S. border where he crossed. Once in the United States, he went to a checkpoint where he and the others were taken to a child refugee camp in Pomona, California. A month later, he was taken to the airport by two workers from the camp who flew with him to West Virginia. In West Virginia, he was released to a person Marco described as an “uncle,” but who was not any biological relation. The uncle put Marco to work in the construction industry and in various restaurants. The uncle then took Marco from West Virginia to Iowa, where Marco worked in large agricultural production plants, while the uncle received payment for Marco’s forced labor. The uncle told Marco he would send the money back to pay off the debt (owed to the coyote) and some to his family. Marco was never in control of his earnings. While in Iowa, Marco lived with several others in an apartment controlled by the uncle who withheld money from him to pay for his share of the apartment. At the time Marco was interviewed by investigators, he had been in the United States for over two years and was still paying off the original debt. Like countless other victims of trafficking, Marco never self-identified as a victim, stating he was pleased to be in Iowa. That lack of self-identification is further explored in the study, <em>Evaluation of the Enhanced Collaborative Model to Combat Human Trafficking, Technical Report</em>, which illustrates many examples as to why there is a problem with self-identification, such as lack of survivor identification for fear of deportation back to one’s home country.<sup>22</sup> Once there (back in their home country) that person (survivor) may still owe money to the ones who originally brought them to a foreign country, thus decreasing the safety of themselves and their family.</p>
<p></aside>
<p>The case shared in the sidebar illuminates the vulnerabilities and barriers faced by immigrants, many of whom are exploited for labor in the United States. Labor trafficking vulnerabilities encompass a wide range of situations that are often traumatic. As previously stated , these factors include poverty, homelessness, lack of education or educational opportunities, migration, and a lack of citizenship status, among other risk factors.<sup>23</sup> One of the most critical factors is poverty and a lack of economic opportunity in the person’s home country or even within the United States. Most of the migrant farmworkers who come to the United States are fleeing some form of violence and nearly all of them have identified poor economic conditions as a strong factor affecting their plans to migrate to the United States.<sup>24</sup> The desire to feed and house an entire family unit often results in whole households leaving and migrating to the United States, where they believe there to be more economic opportunities. This is often where the vicious cycle of debt bondage begins. Migrants often hire smugglers to get them into the United States, where they will work to pay off the debt. The smugglers will often increase fees and charges, so it is difficult for the person to ever fully resolve the debt. This cycle leaves the individual as an indentured servant.</p>
<p>An often-underreported vulnerability seen in victims is that they do not feel victimized. One potential explanation for this misperception is that victims often have a specific definition of what a victim of crime is that does not include their experience. A second barrier to victim recognition is that victims often consent to work under circumstances that legally constitute the crime of human trafficking.<sup>25</sup> Migrants consciously leave their home country in search of work and the promise of a better life, and many view the inhumane working conditions as just a temporary situation to endure so as to better themselves and their family.<sup>26</sup> As a result, victims may feel as though they are in control of their own lives and can make decisions about who and how they work to include the working conditions.<sup>27</sup></p>
<p>When a country, state, or even a neighborhood is in a time of violent conflict, there is often a reduction or absence of law enforcement and access to basic services including food and shelter. This leaves people desperate to provide for themselves and their families. According to the <em>Global Report on Trafficking</em>, militant groups take advantage of the lawless conditions and people’s desperation, forcing people into sexual slavery, forced labor, and even trafficked for use as armed combatants.<sup>28</sup></p>
<p>Another all too often-ignored vulnerability is the perception by law enforcement, in that law enforcement often does not fully recognize the scope of the human trafficking problem in the communities they serve. The belief that the problem is not occurring in their jurisdiction allows agencies to place other enforcement and budgetary priorities above human trafficking concerns.<sup>29</sup> Public and law enforcement perception of labor trafficking is placed on a lower level of priority than sex trafficking. Sex trafficking is easier to identify by law enforcement and by the public, and law enforcement tends to rely on public reports/tips, which are more common for sex trafficking cases than labor trafficking cases. This emphasis on investigating and combating sex trafficking over labor trafficking is a real and challenging issue for modern law enforcement and heightens the vulnerability of those exposed to labor exploitation.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #672767;"><strong>The Need for Training</strong></span></h3>
<p>Law enforcement perceptions are coupled with a lack of quality training available to law enforcement, in particular training at the patrol level. Training frontline officers is of the utmost importance as patrol officers are likely to have more contact with the public than detectives would, thus the officers are in a unique opportunity to identify more victims. One study demonstrated that over 80 percent of the victims identified by a federally funded human trafficking taskforce were victims of sex trafficking. The victim services provider for that same taskforce showed much different numbers, identifying that 64 percent were actually labor trafficking victims and only 22 percent were identified as victims of sex trafficking. This concluded that labor trafficking was a significant issue that went unidentified by law enforcement.<sup>30</sup> This, along with additional supporting research, further illustrates the need for continued training as well as highlighting the benefits of victim service providers and law enforcement to working collaboratively.</p>
<p>Law enforcement training needs to encompass a general understanding of what sex and labor trafficking are on a state, national, and international level. Once knowledge of these crimes is established, the training needs to be tailored and focused on the geographic area the officers work in every day, as the issues in one jurisdiction may look quite different from those in another jurisdiction. The training should focus on screening for and spotting the signs of sex and labor trafficking, focusing on ways officers can identify victims and then concentrating on what steps to take after a victim has been identified. Additionally, it is imperative that trauma-informed care and victim-centered investigation tactics be incorporated. This training is often taught by victim advocates and health care partners. Incorporating these topics in law enforcement training is also a great opportunity for officers to meet and collaborate with other victims, groups, and stakeholders.</p>
<p>To move forward in combating human trafficking, law enforcement must recognize and utilize all services available to assist in this mission . Over the last 20 years, the U.S. government has taken steps to combat human trafficking by establishing the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), which defines human trafficking.<sup>31</sup> The U.S. government has updated and added language to bolster the TVPA, leading to the Enhanced Collaborative Model (ECM) Task Force to Combat Human Trafficking Programs. According to a study, <em>Evaluation of the Enhanced Collaborative Model to Combat Human Trafficking Technical Report</em>, law enforcement must improve in several areas to effectively address human trafficking:</p>
<ol>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ol>
<li>Gain access to additional resources, infrastructure, and training that focus specifically on labor trafficking.</li>
<li>Develop and nurture strong partnerships with regulatory agencies such as the U.S. Department of Labor.</li>
<li>Work at identifying areas at risk of labor trafficking.</li>
<li>Develop skills and expertise for law enforcement to identify and gather intelligence about potential labor trafficking victimization.</li>
<li>Increase knowledge of what visas are available for those victims who may be undocumented.<sup>32</sup></li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Having law enforcement well versed in not only the identification of potential victims but understanding how to proceed after the identification is made will, it is hoped, be a step toward decreasing the number of trafficked people in the United States.</p>
<blockquote><p><span style="color: #672767;">“Proactive work in communities will support these efforts and improve strong relationships with those that are susceptible to trafficking.”</span></p></blockquote>
<p>Multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) should include law enforcement, prosecutors, medical staff, mental health staff, forensic interviewers, victim services specialists, advocates, housing personnel, treatment facilities and personnel, NGOs, and travel and transportation personnel, all with an understanding of the victim-centered approach. An MDT can be conceptualized as a puzzle—if one piece is missing, the picture is not complete. If pieces are missing from MDTs, they will fail to serve victims and survivors. Proactive work in communities will support these efforts and improve strong relationships with those that are susceptible to trafficking.</p>
<p>Serious consideration must be given to dedicating more funding in this area (victim services and law enforcement), as well as to training law enforcement in trafficking indicators and follow-up actions once a victim has been recovered. Given that victims seldom self-identify, investigations must be approached from a victim-centric lens. This leads to assisting victims through recovery, yielding useful information that law enforcement can use later. Utilizing an NGO in the community to assist with housing, victim necessities, treatment, advocacy, counseling, transportation, translation, investigations, and intelligence helps reduce the overall cost associated with combating human trafficking per agency.</p>
<p>Very few officers are engaged in investigations regarding labor trafficking, and only a very small fraction of law enforcement is trained in human trafficking. Most of the training focuses on sex trafficking and prostitution, overlooking labor trafficking entirely.<sup>33</sup> A study entitled <em>Policing Labor Trafficking in the U.S.</em> identified several factors that have led to the lack of law enforcement responses to labor trafficking—the lack of clarity around the definition of the crime, the lack of agency readiness, and the routines of police work that guide officers away from labor trafficking cases.<sup>34</sup></p>
<p>The connection to the identified factors can be linked with a later study, entitled <em>Evaluation of the Enhanced Collaborative Model to Combat Human Trafficking, Technical Report</em>. This study identified challenges such as the lack of knowledge among law enforcement and prosecutors about labor trafficking. In fact, 9 of the 10 prosecutors on Enhanced Collaborative Model task forces reported they had little to no experience prosecuting cases of labor trafficking.<sup>35</sup> Additionally, the complexity of the investigation process and lack of resources to fully support the investigation of labor trafficking means more law enforcement departments (whether local, state, and federal) need dedicated enforcement officers/agents and additional personal for the “long haul.” Finally, the lack of survivor identification and cooperation due to fears of deportation or penalty of incarceration goes hand in hand with trust within the law enforcement community, an important area of focus for the profession as a whole. <span style="font-family: Webdings;"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.0.3/72x72/1f6e1.png" alt="🛡" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></span></p>
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<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft wp-image-74155" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Greg-Hall-285x300.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="158" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Greg-Hall-285x300.jpg 285w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Greg-Hall-974x1024.jpg 974w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Greg-Hall-768x808.jpg 768w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Greg-Hall-1460x1536.jpg 1460w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Greg-Hall.jpg 1735w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /><strong>Greg Hall</strong> began his career as an Iowa law enforcement officer and a criminal investigator for municipal, county and state agencies, accumulating 17 years of law enforcement experience, He was tasked with serving as the Violence Against Women (VAWA) investigator and lead sex crimes investigator for the University of Iowa Department of Public Safety and was instrumental in the creation of the department’s Crime Scene Unit, In addition, he was assigned to several taskforces to include those targeting large human trafficking rings, as well as with the Internet Crimes against Children (ICAC) taskforce. After retiring from law enforcement, he began working as a specialist consultant to law enforcement teams handling complex trafficking cases, as well as conducting investigations in coordination with law enforcement agencies. Additionally, he provides training to law enforcement and civilian entities throughout the United States.</aside>
<aside class="pullout pullout--wide alignleft"></p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft wp-image-74156 size-thumbnail" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/David-Gonzalez-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/David-Gonzalez-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/David-Gonzalez-300x300.jpg 300w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/David-Gonzalez.jpg 311w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /><strong>David Gonzalez </strong>served with the U.S. military, where he was selected for a specialized team. Once his military career ended, he began working as an Iowa law enforcement officer in 1996. As a detective he worked white collar crimes, sex crimes (adult and children), crimes against persons/violent crime, major case crimes, and then human sex/labor trafficking investigations. He led his team (which included federal law enforcement, state law enforcement, and local law enforcement) in human sex/labor trafficking investigations encompassing many states. He retired from law enforcement after 26 years of service and is now a specialist consultant to law enforcement teams handling complex trafficking cases, as well as conducting investigations in coordination with law enforcement agencies. Additionally, he provides training to law enforcement and civilian entities throughout the United States.</aside>
<aside class="pullout pullout--wide alignleft"></p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft wp-image-74157 size-thumbnail" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Schoeberl-150x150.png" alt="" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Schoeberl-150x150.png 150w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Schoeberl-300x300.png 300w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Schoeberl.png 384w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />Dr. <strong>Richard Schoeberl</strong> has over 25 years law enforcement experience, including service with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). He has served in a variety of positions throughout his career, ranging from supervisory special agent at the FBI’s headquarters in Washington, DC, to unit chief of the International Terrorism Operations Section at the NCTC’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia. He currently serves as the U.S. team leader for Hope for Justice, a global nonprofit combating human trafficking. He is also a research professor of criminology and homeland security at The University of Tennessee-Southern and serves on the Baylor University’s human trafficking research team. He further serves as a specialist consultant to law enforcement teams handling complex trafficking cases, as well as conducting investigations in coordination with law enforcement agencies. Additionally, he develops and delivers specialized human trafficking training for the U.S. government, law enforcement agencies, health care, and financial institutions, among others.</aside>
<p><strong>Notes:</strong></p>
<p><sup>1</sup>U.S. Department of State (DOS), <em><a href="https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/TIPR-GPA-upload-07222021.pdf">Trafficking in Persons Report</a></em> (Washington, DC: DOS, 2021).</p>
<p><sup>2</sup>Polaris Project, ”<a href="https://polarisproject.org/partnerships/">Partnerships</a>.”</p>
<p><sup>3</sup>Michelle De Cock, <a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/forced-labour/publications/WCMS_081986/lang--en/index.htm"><em>Directions for National and International Data Collection on Forced Labour</em></a>, Working Paper No. 30 (Geneva: International Labour Office, 2007).</p>
<p><sup>4</sup>Xin Shiyan, “Digging into US Crimes of Human Trafficking and Forced Labor,” <em>Global Times</em>, August 18, 2021.</p>
<p><sup>5</sup>Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, “FinCEN Issues Alert on Human Smuggling Along the Southwest Border of the United States,” news release, January 13, 2023.</p>
<p><sup>6</sup>Human Trafficking Institute, <em><a href="https://data.traffickinginstitute.org/prosecution-of-human-trafficking-cases/">Prosecution of Human Trafficking Cases</a></em> (2022).</p>
<p><sup>7</sup>Monique Villa, <em>Slaves Among Us: The Hidden World of Human Trafficking</em> (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2019).</p>
<p><sup>8</sup>Polaris Project, <a href="https://humantraffickinghotline.org/sites/default/files/Polaris-2019-US-National-Human-Trafficking-Hotline-Data-Report.pdf"><em>Data Report: The U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline</em></a> (2019).</p>
<p><sup>9</sup>Andrew Yang, “<a href="https://borgenproject.org/factors-that-lead-to-human-trafficking/">Factors that Lead to Human Trafficking</a>,” <em>The Borgen Project Blog</em>, September 14, 2019.</p>
<p><sup>10</sup>Julia Ainsley, “<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/migrant-border-crossings-fiscal-year-2022-topped-276-million-breaking-rcna53517">Migrant Border Crossings in Fiscal Year 2022 Topped 2.76 Million, Breaking Previous Record</a>,” NBC News, October 22, 2022.</p>
<p><sup>11</sup>Polaris, “<a href="https://polarisproject.org/category/latin-america/">Latin America</a>.”</p>
<p><sup>12</sup>Ufuoma Agarin et al., <a href="https://shrivercenter.umbc.edu/files/2014/10/2014-labor-trafficking-policy-paper.pdf"><em>Freedom Is Free, Labor Isn’t: Bringing Awareness to Labor Trafficking in Maryland </em></a> (Maryland: Shriver Center, University of Maryland, 2014); Kelle Barrick et al., “When Farmworkers and Advocates See Trafficking, But Law Enforcement Does Not: Challenges in Identifying Labor Trafficking In North Carolina,” <em>Crime, Law and Social Change</em> 61 (2014): 205–214; Denise Brennen, <em>Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States</em> (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014); Shelley, Cavalieri, “<a href="https://humantraffickinghotline.org/en">The Eyes that Blind Us: The Overlooked Phenomenon of Trafficking into the Agricultural Sector</a>,” <em>Northern Illinois University of Law Review </em>31 (2011): 501–519; Colleen Owens et al., <a href="https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/33821/413249-Understanding-the-Organization-Operation-and-Victimization-Process-of-Labor-Trafficking-in-the-United-States.PDF"><em>Understanding the Organization, Operation, and Victimization Process of Labor Trafficking in the United States</em></a> (Urban Institute, 2014).</p>
<p><sup>13</sup>Sheldon X. Zhang et al. “Estimating Labor Trafficking among Unauthorized Migrant Workers in San Diego,” <em>The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science</em> 653 (May 2014): 65–86.</p>
<p><sup>14</sup>IOM: UN Migration: <a href="https://publications.iom.int/books/world-migration-report-2022"><em>World Migration Report 2022</em></a> (United Nations, 2021).</p>
<p><sup>15 </sup>Amy Farrell, Rebecca Pfeffer, and Katherine Bright, “Police Perceptions of Human Trafficking,” <em>Journal of Crime and Justice</em> 38, no. 3 (2015): 315–333.</p>
<p><sup>16</sup>Kevin Bales, <em>Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy</em>, 2nd Ed. (University of California Press, 2004); Barrick et al., “When Farmworkers and Advocates See Trafficking, But Law Enforcement Does Not”; Hila Shamir, “<a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2177914">A Labor Paradigm for Human Trafficking</a>,” <em>UCLA Law Review</em> 60 (2012): 76–136; Sheldon X. Zhang, <em>Smuggling and Trafficking in Human Beings: All Roads Lead to America</em> (Praeger Publishers, 2007); Sheldon X. Zhang, <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/240223.pdf"><em>Looking for a Hidden Population: Trafficking of Migrant Laborers in San Diego Count</em></a><em>y</em> (San Diego, CA; San Diego State University, 2012).</p>
<p><sup>17</sup>Thomas A. Arcury et al., “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4801016/#:~:text=Research%20in%20NC%20has%20consistently,and%20not%20experience%20wage%20theft.&text=At%20the%20same%20time%2C%20farmworkers,H%2D2A%20visas%20remain%20vulnerable.">Job Characteristics and Work Safety Climate among North Carolina Farmworkers with H-2A Visas</a>,” <em>Journal of Agromedicine</em> 20, no. 1 (2015): 64–76; Human Rights Watch, “<a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/05/14/us-child-workers-danger-tobacco-farms">US: Child Workers in Danger on Tobacco Farms</a>,” news release, May 14, 2014.</p>
<p><sup>18</sup>Katherine Kaufka Walts, “<a href="https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/914">Child Labor Trafficking in the United States: A Hidden Crime</a>,” <em>Social Inclusion</em> 5, no. 2 (2017).</p>
<p><sup>19</sup>Laura T. Murphy, <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/ht/murphy-labor-sex-trafficking-homeless-youth.pdf"><em>Labor and Sex Trafficking Among Homeless Youth: A Ten-City Study—Full Report</em></a> (New Orleans, LA: Modern Slavery Research Project, Loyola University New Orleans, 2017); Dominique Roe-Sepowitz, Kristen Bracy, and Kimberly Hogan, <a href="https://www.mccaininstitute.org/resources/reports/2018-youth-experiences-survey/"><em>Youth Experiences Survey 2018: Year Five</em></a> (Arizona State University, 2018); Dominique Roe-Sepowitz, Kristen Bracy, and Kimberly Hogan, <a href="https://www.mccaininstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2020_youth_experiences_survey_report_final.pdf"><em>2020 Youth Experiences Survey</em></a> (Arizona State University, 2021); Walts, “<a href="https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/914">Child Labor Trafficking in the United States: A Hidden Crime</a>.”</p>
<p><sup>20</sup>Murphy, <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/ht/murphy-labor-sex-trafficking-homeless-youth.pdf"><em>Labor and Sex Trafficking Among Homeless Youth</em></a>.”</p>
<p><sup>21</sup>Polaris Project, <a href="https://humantraffickinghotline.org/sites/default/files/Polaris-2019-US-National-Human-Trafficking-Hotline-Data-Report.pdf"><em>Data Report: The U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline</em></a>.</p>
<p><sup>22</sup>William Adams et al., <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/300863.pdf"><em>Evaluation of the Enhanced Collaborative Model to Combat Human Trafficking, Technical Report</em></a> (Urban Institute, 2021).</p>
<p><sup>23</sup>Corinne Schwarz et al., “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0886109918803648">The Trafficking Continuum: Service Providers’ Perspectives on Vulnerability, Exploitation, and Trafficking</a>,” <em>Affilia: Feminist Inquiry in Social Works</em> 34, no. 1 (2019): 116–-132.</p>
<p><sup>24</sup>Jeremy S. Norwood, “Labor Exploitation of Migrant Farmworkers: Risks for Human Trafficking,” <em>Journal of Human Trafficking</em> 6, no. 2 (2020): 209–220.</p>
<p><sup>25</sup>Masja van Meeteren and Jing Hiah, “Self-Identification of Victimization of Labor Trafficking,” in <em>The Palgrave International Handbook of Human Suffering</em>, eds. John Wintrerdyk and Jackie Jones (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).</p>
<p><sup>26</sup>Meeteren and Hiah, “Self-Identification of Victimization of Labor Trafficking.”</p>
<p><sup>27</sup>Meeteren and Hiah, “Self-Identification of Victimization of Labor Trafficking.”</p>
<p><sup>28</sup>UN Office on Drugs and Crime, <a href="https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/glotip/2018/GLOTiP_2018_BOOK_web_small.pdf"><em>Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2018</em></a> (New York NY: United Nations, 2018).</p>
<p><sup>29</sup>Farrell, Pfeffer, and Bright, “Police Perceptions of Human Trafficking.”</p>
<p><sup>30</sup>Amy Farrell and Rebecca Pfeffer, “Policing Human Trafficking: Cultural Blinders and Organizatioal Barriers,” <em>Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science </em>653, no. 1 (May 2014): 46–64.</p>
<p><sup>31</sup>U.S. Department of Justice, “<a href="https://www.justice.gov/humantrafficking/key-legislation#:~:text=The%20Trafficking%20Victims%20Protection%20Act,of%20slavery%20domestically%20and%20internationally.">Human Trafficking: Key Legislation</a>.”</p>
<p><sup>32</sup>Adams et al., <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/300863.pdf"><em>Evaluation of the Enhanced Collaborative Model to Combat Human Trafficking, Technical Report</em></a>.</p>
<p><sup>33</sup>Farrell and Pfeffer, “Policing Human Trafficking.”</p>
<p><sup>34</sup>Farrell and Pfeffer, “Policing Human Trafficking.”</p>
<p><sup>35</sup>Adams et al., <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/300863.pdf"><em>Evaluation of the Enhanced Collaborative Model to Combat Human Trafficking, Technical Report</em></a>.</p>
<hr />
<p>Please cite as</p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;">Greg Hall, David Gonzalez, and Richard Schoeberl, “Labor Trafficking Vulnerabilities and Victimization,” <em>Police Chief Online</em>, June 22, 2023.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
<p>The post <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/labor-trafficking-vulnerabilities-victimization/">Labor Trafficking Vulnerabilities and Victimization</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org">Police Chief Magazine</a>.</p>
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<title>Serving Vulnerable Populations in Indian Country</title>
<link>https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/serving-vulnerable-populations-indian-country/</link>
<comments>https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/serving-vulnerable-populations-indian-country/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Margaret White]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 14 Jun 2023 15:06:18 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Bonus Online Article]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Community-Police Engagement]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Topics]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Victim Services]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[bonus article]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Indian Country]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[victim services]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/?p=74124</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<p>Serving vulnerable populations in Indian Country is an ever-evolving process. The U.S. government recognizes 566 tribes and there are 325 Native American reservations, Furthermore, there is “a total of 618 legal and statistical areas for which the Census Bureau provides statistics, including reservations, off-reservation trust lands, Oklahoma tribal statistical areas, tribal designated statistical areas, state American Indian reservations, and state designated American Indian statistical areas.”<sup>1</sup> There are currently 258 tribal police agencies that have at least one full-time sworn officer with arrest authority. Poverty is a problem for Native Americans living on reservations. The reservation poverty rates are 29.4 percent for individuals and 36 percent for families (compared with the U.S. averages of 15.3 percent 9.2 percent, respectively).<sup>2</sup> Northwestern University conducted a study that concluded one-third of Native Americans live in poverty. The median income for Native Americans is $23,000 a year; 20 percent of Native American households have a total annual income of less than $5,000. As the study points out:</p>
<p><em>Due to the oppression of Indigenous peoples, reservations cannot provide adequate economic opportunity. As a result, a majority of adults are unemployed. Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota has better numbers than most reservations—</em><a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/06/13/1-in-4-native-americans-and-alaska-natives-are-living-in-poverty/"><em>43.2% of the population</em></a><em> lives under the poverty line. However, this rate is nearly three times the national average.</em></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/serving-vulnerable-populations-indian-country/">Serving Vulnerable Populations in Indian Country</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org">Police Chief Magazine</a>.</p>
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p> </p>
<p>Serving vulnerable populations in Indian Country is an ever-evolving process. The U.S. government recognizes 566 tribes and there are 325 Native American reservations, Furthermore, there is “a total of 618 legal and statistical areas for which the Census Bureau provides statistics, including reservations, off-reservation trust lands, Oklahoma tribal statistical areas, tribal designated statistical areas, state American Indian reservations, and state designated American Indian statistical areas.”<sup>1</sup> There are currently 258 tribal police agencies that have at least one full-time sworn officer with arrest authority. Poverty is a problem for Native Americans living on reservations. The reservation poverty rates are 29.4 percent for individuals and 36 percent for families (compared with the U.S. averages of 15.3 percent 9.2 percent, respectively).<sup>2</sup> Northwestern University conducted a study that concluded one-third of Native Americans live in poverty. The median income for Native Americans is $23,000 a year; 20 percent of Native American households have a total annual income of less than $5,000. As the study points out:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>Due to the oppression of Indigenous peoples, reservations cannot provide adequate economic opportunity. As a result, a majority of adults are unemployed. Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota has better numbers than most reservations—</em><a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/06/13/1-in-4-native-americans-and-alaska-natives-are-living-in-poverty/"><em>43.2% of the population</em></a><em> lives under the poverty line. However, this rate is nearly three times the national average.</em><sup>3</sup></p>
<p>Native Americans are also at an increased risk for several health issues such as</p>
<table style="width: 90%; border-collapse: collapse; border-style: none;">
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<td style="width: 48%;">
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul style="list-style-type: square; color: #0071ce;">
<li><span style="color: #333333;">Mental illness and suicide</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">Unintentional injuries</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">Obesity</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">Teenage pregnancy</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">Diabetes</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">Heart disease</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">Cancer</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">Stroke</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">Liver disease</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">Hepatitis</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">Tuberculosis</span></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td style="width: 52%; text-align: right; vertical-align: middle;"><em><span style="font-size: 32px; color: #c79c36;">“More than 84 percent of Native American and Native Alaskan women have experienced violence in their lifetimes.”</span></em></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>The challenges faced among this population and addressed in this article may sound familiar; however, as the study from Northwestern University succinctly states, they can be particularly complex and deep-rooted in Native American communities.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #0071ce;"><strong>Challenges</strong></span></h3>
<h4><span style="color: #c79c36;"><em>Drugs</em></span></h4>
<p>Specific drug-related problems currently facing tribal law enforcement include the epidemic use of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 50–100 times stronger than morphine and that often originates in Mexico and is distributed within the community. The opioid-related overdose death rate in 2021 was 38.7 deaths per 100,000 Native Americans.<sup>4</sup> The drugs (including fentanyl itself and drugs that are laced with fentanyl) that are distributed on the streets often carry a high enough dose to kill people.</p>
<p>Alcohol is another substance that is abused in Native American communities. Overall, Native Americans have a higher rate of substance abuse than any other racial and ethnic group. Research shows that there are several factors that contribute to these rates:</p>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul style="list-style-type: square; color: #0071ce;">
<li><span style="color: #333333;">Historical trauma</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">Violence (including high levels of gang violence, domestic violence, and sexual assault)</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">Poverty</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">High levels of unemployment</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">Discrimination</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">Racism</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">Lack of health insurance</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">Low levels of attained education<sup>5</sup></span></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h4><span style="color: #c79c36;"><em>Homelessness</em></span></h4>
<p>It is estimated that Native Americans make up 8 percent of the U.S. homeless population. This high rate of homelessness is caused by a number of factors, including mistrust of the government, overcrowding, a lack of available low-cost housing, and feelings of isolation.<sup>6</sup></p>
<p>A 2017 assessment of Native American housing showed that homelessness affects almost every tribal area:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>Nationally, 99.8 percent of tribal housing officials reported that doubling up (i.e., taking in family and friends who would otherwise risk homelessness) was a problem in their tribal areas, and 88 percent said households experience literal homelessness (i.e., sleeping on the street, in emergency shelter, or someplace not meant for human habitation).</em><sup>7</sup></p>
<p>It is common to see more than one family share a house due to the lack of housing; however, this can increase housing instability:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>Overcrowding can cause the housing provider to terminate the lease due to additional people residing in the house longer than agreed to. Also, applications for housing may be declined for fear of Native Americans inviting an excess number of individuals to reside in the house. Additionally, there is the possibility that children are harmed, abused, or exposed to substance use from relatives or others living in the home.<sup>8</sup></em></p>
<p>It is important to note that 22 percent of Native Americans live on tribal lands, while 72 percent live in off-reservation urban or suburban areas. However, both groups experience homelessness or unsafe living conditions at higher rates than non-Indigenous people. In the United States, 1 person out of 1,000 is experiencing homelessness, but that rate rises to <a href="https://www.nlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/REAL-MAG-Roadmap-to-Repair-Report-copy.pdf">1 out of </a> 200 for Indigenous peoples.<sup>9</sup></p>
<figure id="attachment_63907" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-63907" style="width: 246px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-63907 size-medium" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/MSP-Vax-clinic5-246x300.jpg" alt="" width="246" height="300" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/MSP-Vax-clinic5-246x300.jpg 246w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/MSP-Vax-clinic5-839x1024.jpg 839w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/MSP-Vax-clinic5-768x938.jpg 768w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/MSP-Vax-clinic5-1258x1536.jpg 1258w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/MSP-Vax-clinic5-1677x2048.jpg 1677w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/MSP-Vax-clinic5.jpg 1734w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 246px) 100vw, 246px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-63907" class="wp-caption-text">Photo by J.E. Decourcey/MSP</figcaption></figure>
<p>Tribal police often work with other resources to help those experiencing homelessness in their area. For example, in Minneapolis, Autumn Dillie, an outreach worker with the American Indian Community Development Corporation, organized a group to go out into the community to assist those in need. She explained how their organization assists the community by having a medical team go out into the homeless community, assess health issues, and provide vaccinations for individuals. The vaccinations helped in addressing an outbreak of Hepatitis A, as declared by the Minnesota Department of Health, particularly among those experiencing homelessness.</p>
<p>The team immediately helped people with getting on suboxone, according to Rosemary Fiste, a psychiatric nurse practitioner. Suboxone, a prescription drug, is used to help people quit opioids by lessening withdrawal symptoms and blocking the narcotic effects.</p>
<p>Dillie went on to say:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>Two outreach groups hand out hats, water, snacks, and unused needles and can take people to shelter or recently opened drop-in centers. One at the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center and another at the American Indian Community Development Corporation. A fourth group goes in Metro Transit’s “Homeless Action Team” bus, which can sign people up for medical benefits, rental subsidies and welfare, as well as take people to shelter and treat minor medical injuries.<sup>10</sup></em></p>
<h4><span style="color: #c79c36;"><em>Mental Illness</em></span></h4>
<p>Tribal police also face the realities of mental illness within their communities and are working to educate their officers on how to engage with people in crisis. For example, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma utilized federal grant funding to train police, youth workers, and health staff who deal with mental illness first aid in crisis situations. The Cherokee Nation has six instructors out of 5,000 across the United States.</p>
<p>The desired outcome is obviously to reduce the number of numerous reported deaths of Native Americans who deal with mental illness.</p>
<p>Recent training of 20-plus Cherokee Nation Health Services staff and local health-care agencies received eight hours of instruction where they memorized a 5-step action plan on how to identify mental health risk factors, offer support and become effective communicators. Funded through a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Serve Administration grant and the Indian Health Service, five courses of instruction are provided for Cherokee Nation employees in recognizing risk factors and warning signs of mental illness and how they relate to an emergency situation. Renewal certification for the instructors is required every three years.</p>
<p>Although Oklahoma doesn’t have a mental health diversion program, officers are required to take part in at least two hours of mental health training. The Council on Law Enforcement and Education Training (CLEET) has a 40-hour program that can train officers in de-escalation and how to identify mental illness or substance abuse in person.<sup>12</sup></p>
<p>The Choctaw Nation offers an educational summit on behavioral health to their Lighthorse officers, where officers can learn about responses to people experiencing a mental health crisis or substance abuse. In addition, they have employed counselors and case managers to help people involved in the criminal court system get mental health assessments and treatment.<sup>13</sup></p>
<h3><span style="color: #0071ce;"><strong>Services and Solutions</strong></span></h3>
<h4><span style="color: #c79c36;"><em>Victim Services</em></span></h4>
<p>Many tribes offer victim services to their communities. The Iowa tribe in Oklahoma has the Tribal Victim Services Set Aside Program. This program</p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>works with victims of crime to help assure that their rights as crime victims are realized. The program serves all victims in our community, regardless of ethnicity. The focus in the coming year is serving those victimized by drunk and drugged drivers, elder abuse, and human trafficking. Program staff serves as a single point of contact and accountability as they work to coordinate federal, state, local, and tribal programs and services to meet the needs of victims and usher them through the criminal justice system.</em><sup>14 </sup></p>
<p>The Chickasaw Lighthorse Police have victim service coordinators who help crime victims by providing needed resources to help in returning them to some sense of normalcy. Those resources may be in the form of temporary housing (for domestic violence victims), transportation, and education on potential court processes and how the judicial system works. Coordinators may also help victims file for protection orders; provide diapers and formula for children; help victims and witnesses enroll in counseling services; and provide food, clothing, and other resources, among other services.</p>
<p>More than 84 percent of Native American and Native Alaskan women have experienced violence in their lifetimes, according to a study from the National Institute of Justice. The study shows the women are more likely to be victims of interracial perpetrators and are significantly more likely to suffer at the hands of intimate partners. Native American and Native Alaskan men are close behind, with 80 percent experiencing violence as well.</p>
<blockquote><p><span style="color: #c79c36;">“The role of respect is important in tribal culture and their communities.”</span></p></blockquote>
<p>Most victims feel the need for legal services, but many lack resources to get that help. Native American Rights Fund (NARF), a nonprofit organization, uses legal action to ensure the rights of Native Americans are upheld. Since its inception in 1970, NARF has helped tens of thousands of Native Americans from more than 250 tribes all over the United States.<sup>15</sup></p>
<h4><span style="color: #c79c36;"><em>Community Policing</em></span></h4>
<p>Tribal community policing makes an impact on vulnerable populations. Community policing requires officers to make a personal connection to the people they serve. This can be as simple as making coffee runs to vulnerable populations on the street or working with tribally run groups specific to needs of those dealing with addiction, homelessness, and mental health issues and those who need victims’ services. Being visible in the community can make a difference in the relationships officers build. Increasing the number of positive interactions and enhancing police relationships within these tribal communities has increased the willingness of tribal members to reach out to the police with their needs. For Tribal officers, community policing is part of their daily duties in the community rather than a program. With smaller agencies, officers have to balance their enforcement and support roles. The limited resources and large land mass to patrol on their reservations, many officers are alone and may have to wait a significant amount of time for a backup unit. From an officer safety standpoint, officers are more likely to know what they are walking into when they respond to a call, and can more easily deescalate tense situations, when they have relationships with tribal members and can communicate with them effectively.</p>
<p>Smaller agencies allow for exceptional opportunities for closer relationships among officers and community members that are beyond standard police practices. This relationship, however, provides for opportunities for officers to perform duties such as checking on elderly tribal members, provide rides home for people, and playing basketball with youth.</p>
<p>The role of respect is important in tribal culture and their communities. As sovereignty and jurisdictional authority expand in Indian Country, tribes take a great deal of pride in being able to take care of their people, especially from the law enforcement perspective.<sup>16</sup> <span style="font-family: Webdings;">d</span></p>
<aside class="pullout pullout--wide alignleft"></p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft wp-image-74126 size-thumbnail" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Commissioner-Wesley-150x150.png" alt="" width="150" height="150" />After 20 years of service with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) as a special agent, <strong>Randy Wesley</strong> was appointed by Chickasaw Nation Governor Bill Anoatubby to serve as the chief of police for the Chickasaw Lighthorse Police Department in November 2012. In 2013, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin called upon him to serve as the tribal representative on the executive board of the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training (CLEET). In 2017, Governor Anoatubby appointed him commissioner of tribal law enforcement. Prior to his work in the BIA, he was employed by the McAlester, Oklahoma, Police Department for 11 years where he worked as a dispatcher, police officer, and detective. Commissioner Wesley also serves as the tribal representative to the Oklahoma Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP) Executive Board; is a past president of the Oklahoma Sheriff’s and Peace Officers Association (OSPOA); is a board member for the Pontotoc County 911 Advisory Board, for the Murray County 911 Advisory Board, for the Ada Family Crisis Center Executive Board, and for the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Museum and Hall of Fame; and a committee member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), Victim Services Committee.</aside>
<aside class="pullout pullout--wide alignleft"></p>
<p><strong>Michelle Cooke</strong> is a senior staff writer for Chickasaw Press and a Chickasaw citizen. She has worked for the Chickasaw Nation since 2007, where her focus has been writing about, teaching, and researching Chickasaw history and culture. She is the author of <em>Protecting Our People: Chickasaw Law Enforcement in Indian Territory </em>and co-author of <em>Listening to Our Elders</em>. Her work has also appeared in <em>The Journal of Chickasaw History and Culture</em>,<em> Chokma: Chickasaw Magazine, </em>and the <em>Chickasaw Basic Language </em>workbook series. </aside>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Notes:</strong></p>
<p><sup>1</sup>Administration for Native Americans, “<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20250209142905/https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ana/fact-sheet/american-indians-and-alaska-natives-numbers">American Indians and Alaska Native – By the Numbers</a>.”</p>
<p><sup>2</sup>Administration for Native Americans, “<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20250209142905/https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ana/fact-sheet/american-indians-and-alaska-natives-numbers">American Indians and Alaska Native – By the Numbers</a>.”</p>
<p><sup>3</sup>Amanda J. Godfrey, “<a href="https://borgenproject.org/native-american-reservations/">5 Facts About Life on the Native American Reservations</a>,” <em>The Borgen Project Blog</em>, December 5, 2020.</p>
<p><sup>4</sup> Albuquerque Area Southwest Tribal Epidemiology Center, “The Opioid Crisis: Impact on Native American Communities,” fact sheet, 2023.<sup>5</sup> American Addiction Centers, “<a href="https://americanaddictioncenters.org/rehab-guide/addiction-statistics/native-americans">Alcohol and Drug Abuse Among Native Americans</a>,” updated September 12, 2022.</p>
<p><sup>6</sup>Dominica, “<a href="https://sunrisenativerecovery.com/native-american/native-americans-homelessness-substance-abuse/">Native Americans, Homelessness, & Substance Abuse</a>,” <em>Sunrise Native Recovery</em> (blog), January 3, 2022.</p>
<p><sup>7</sup>Jennifer Beiss, “<a href="https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/homelessness-indian-country-hidden-critical-problem">Homelessness in Indian Country Is a Hidden, But Critical, Problem</a>,” <em>Urban Wire</em> (blog), April 11, 2017.</p>
<p><sup>8</sup>Dominica, “<a href="https://sunrisenativerecovery.com/native-american/native-americans-homelessness-substance-abuse/">Native Americans, Homelessness, & Substance Abuse</a></p>
<p><sup>9</sup>Samantha Steeves, “<a href="https://www.nlc.org/article/2022/11/29/housing-for-indigenous-peoples-tribal-nations/">Housing for Indigenous Peoples & Tribal Nations</a>,” <em>CitiesSpeak</em> (blog), November 29, 2022.</p>
<p><sup>10</sup>Max Nesterak, “<a href="https://minnesotareformer.com/2020/02/11/native-led-effort-brings-nighttime-help-to-homeless/">Native-Led Effort Brings Nighttime Help to Homeless</a>,” <em>Minnesota Reformer</em>, February 11, 2020.</p>
<p><sup>11</sup>Mark Maxey, “<a href="https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/tribes-mental-illness-safety-course-may-deter-police-shootings/">Tribe’s Mental Illness Safety Course May Deter Police Shootings</a>,” <em>People’s World</em>, April 24, 2018.</p>
<p><sup>12</sup>Allison Herrera, “‘<a href="https://www.kosu.org/health/2022-12-06/i-want-to-help-my-people-tribal-nations-in-oklahoma-focus-on-mental-health-treatment">I Want To Help My People’: Tribal Nations in Oklahoma Focus on Mental Health Treatment</a>,” NPR Morning Edition, December 6, 2022.</p>
<p><sup>13</sup>Herrera, “‘<a href="https://www.kosu.org/health/2022-12-06/i-want-to-help-my-people-tribal-nations-in-oklahoma-focus-on-mental-health-treatment">I Want to Help My people</a>.’”</p>
<p><sup>14</sup>Bah Kho-Je, “<a href="https://iowanation.org/">Victim Services Unit</a>.”</p>
<p><sup>15</sup>Godfrey, “<a href="https://borgenproject.org/native-american-reservations/">5 Facts About Life on the Native American Reservations</a></p>
<p><sup>16</sup>International Association of Chiefs of Police, <a href="https://www.theiacp.org/sites/default/files/all/t/TribalCommunityPolicing.pdf"><em>Promising Practices in Tribal Community Policing</em></a> (Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 2016), 17–18.</p>
<hr />
<p>Please cite as</p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;">Randy Wesley and Michelle Cooke, “Serving Vulnerable Populations in Indian Country,” <em>Police Chief Online</em>, June 14, 2023.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The post <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/serving-vulnerable-populations-indian-country/">Serving Vulnerable Populations in Indian Country</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org">Police Chief Magazine</a>.</p>
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</item>
<item>
<title>Planning for the Unpredictable</title>
<link>https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/planning-for-the-unpredictable/</link>
<comments>https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/planning-for-the-unpredictable/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Margaret White]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Jun 2023 12:06:34 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Mass Casualty Attacks]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Topics]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Victim Services]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[mass casualty events]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[victim services]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[vulnerable populations]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/?p=73943</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<p>The moment a mass violence, mass casualty, or domestic terrorism incident occurs is not the time for responding agencies to meet each other or develop an approach. Planning reduces chaos and mitigates challenges with victim populations (among other elements) during a response to a mass casualty incident. Stakeholders need to know who will be responding, what each agency’s roles and responsibilities are, and how they will effectively work together <em>prior</em> to an incident. Communities need to plan specifically for the size, scope, and complexity of mass violence and domestic terrorism incidents in order to ensure that there is an effective victim-integrated response when it is needed. In most cases, the victims of these attacks will come from diverse parts of the community. They will have widely varying needs, and law enforcement and service providers may be challenged to effectively engage and serve all victims. A functional response plan will include strategies to manage the complexities of the impacted population. Writing this plan takes time and effort. Diverse stakeholders must be included in conversations, and traditional responders must be willing to fill responsibilities outside of their regular routines.</p>
<p>With the increase in mass violence incidents across the globe, particularly in the United States, it seems like it is not a question of “if something happens,” but, rather, “when something happens.” Many communities affected by previous incidents of mass violence responded without a full plan for the intricacies of a criminal mass violence or domestic terrorism incident. All wished they had done more planning and built more relationships to better serve victims and their loved ones.</p>
<p>Mass violence events are unpredictable. These events are most often single acts of violence meant to inflict significant harm to specifically identified groups consisting of random individuals. Mass violence may create generalized fear, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, social isolation, and many other challenges for victims that can take time to appear and even longer to recover from. These events instill fear not only in the communities in which they occur but also in communities across the world as people fear the day it could happen in their own hometowns.</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/planning-for-the-unpredictable/">Planning for the Unpredictable</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org">Police Chief Magazine</a>.</p>
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<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: right;"><span style="color: #808080;"><sup>Photo by Gerardo Mora/Getty Images</sup></span></p>
<p>The moment a mass violence, mass casualty, or domestic terrorism incident occurs is not the time for responding agencies to meet each other or develop an approach. Planning reduces chaos and mitigates challenges with victim populations (among other elements) during a response to a mass casualty incident. Stakeholders need to know who will be responding, what each agency’s roles and responsibilities are, and how they will effectively work together prior to an incident. Communities need to plan specifically for the size, scope, and complexity of mass violence and domestic terrorism incidents in order to ensure that there is an effective victim-integrated response when it is needed. In most cases, the victims of these attacks will come from diverse parts of the community. They will have widely varying needs, and law enforcement and service providers may be challenged to effectively engage and serve all victims. A functional response plan will include strategies to manage the complexities of the impacted population. Writing this plan takes time and effort. Diverse stakeholders must be included in conversations, and traditional responders must be willing to fill responsibilities outside of their regular routines.</p>
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<td style="width: 762px;" width="762"><span style="color: #d9d6cf;"><big><strong>Definitions</strong><big></big></big></span></td>
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<td>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>Vulnerability<br />
</strong></span><span style="color: #ffffff;">In emergency preparedness and response, CDC defines vulnerable populations as groups whose needs are not fully addressed by traditional service providers or who feel they cannot comfortably or safely access and use the standard resources offered in emergency preparedness, relief, and recovery. Vulnerable populations have differing capabilities, opinions, needs, and circumstances, and no one individual or agency can speak for all groups.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>Mass Violence</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: #ffffff;">There is no universal definition of mass violence. The U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) defines mass violence as an intentional violent criminal act, for which a formal investigation has been opened by the Federal Bureau of Investigation or other law enforcement agency, that results in physical, emotional, or psychological injury to a sufficiently large number of people as to significantly increase the burden of victim assistance and compensation for the responding jurisdiction as determined by the OVC director. Although definitions vary, a common thread is that response resources are typically overwhelmed and there is a need for collaboration and mutual aid to meet the needs of victims and the community.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>Domestic Terrorism</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: #ffffff;">Domestic terrorism means activities that Involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any state, appears to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping.</span></p>
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<h3><span style="color: #0a7e8c;"><strong>Planning for Mass Violence or Domestic Terrorism</strong></span></h3>
<p>With the increase in mass violence incidents across the globe, particularly in the United States, it seems like it is not a question of “if something happens,” but, rather, “when something happens.” Many communities affected by previous incidents of mass violence responded without a full plan for the intricacies of a criminal mass violence or domestic terrorism incident. All wished they had done more planning and built more relationships to better serve victims and their loved ones.</p>
<figure id="attachment_73959" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-73959" style="width: 400px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-73959" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-919092552-300x202.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="269" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-919092552-300x202.jpg 300w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-919092552-1024x688.jpg 1024w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-919092552-768x516.jpg 768w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-919092552-1536x1032.jpg 1536w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-919092552-2048x1376.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-73959" class="wp-caption-text">Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</figcaption></figure>
<p>Mass violence events are unpredictable. These events are most often single acts of violence meant to inflict significant harm to specifically identified groups consisting of random individuals. Mass violence may create generalized fear, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, social isolation, and many other challenges for victims that can take time to appear and even longer to recover from. These events instill fear not only in the communities in which they occur but also in communities across the world as people fear the day it could happen in their own hometowns.</p>
<p>Some factors of a mass violence response are unique and require specific planning. They include the need</p>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul style="list-style-type: square; color: #0a7e8c;">
<li><span style="color: #333333;">for a large, comprehensive, and rapid response that will likely incorporate multiple jurisdictions;</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">to recognize the enormous size and scope of a needed response;</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">to identify and integrate unique and nontraditional responders; and</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">to quickly identify victims’ immediate needs related to the enormity and devastation of the loss.</span></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>These factors can be planned for if steps are taken prior to something happening. However, many jurisdictions get distracted from specific planning for mass violence because they often have an “It will never happen here!” mindset and they are already juggling multiple other priorities.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #0a7e8c;"><strong>Community Vulnerabilities</strong></span></h3>
<p>Communities routinely assess what vulnerable populations exist within the jurisdiction and include some planning assumptions and actions to meet specific needs. Figure 1 is a list of commonly identified vulnerable populations within communities. Each community will have varying numbers of people in each of these categories and will need to plan for some emergency response services to meet specific needs, such as accessible shelters, alternative transportation, and interpretation services.</p>
<p>Figure 1 also contains a list of vulnerabilities that might be experienced by anyone but are often challenges for the identified vulnerable populations. When there is preexisting vulnerability, with many people living “on the edge” (of poverty, homelessness, unemployment, a medical emergency, etc.), the added stress, chaos, and uncertainty of a mass violence or domestic terrorism incident can destabilize people to the point where they fall off that edge.</p>
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<td style="width: 100%;"><strong><span style="color: #0a7e8c;">FIGURE 1: Vulnerable Populations and Vulnerabilities</span></strong></td>
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<td style="width: 100%;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-73953" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Hughes_Figure-1-1024x512.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="400" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Hughes_Figure-1-1024x512.jpg 1024w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Hughes_Figure-1-300x150.jpg 300w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Hughes_Figure-1-768x384.jpg 768w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Hughes_Figure-1-1536x768.jpg 1536w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Hughes_Figure-1-2048x1024.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></td>
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<p>An additional vulnerability can be found in some events, such as the 2017 shooting at a music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, where many of the victims and survivors were from out of town and did not remain in Las Vegas after the incident. The victims and survivors who returned to their homes elsewhere did not have access to the resources and providers that were available in the Las Vegas community.</p>
<p>Vulnerabilities are as varied as the people they impact. This disparity will impact the response needed by law enforcement, the complexity of the community’s needs assessment after an incident, and the services that might be required to adequately meet those needs.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #0a7e8c;"><strong>Intersectionality</strong></span></h3>
<p>Some people in vulnerable population groups encounter multiple challenges, not just one. Intersectionality is defined as “the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, gender, and often religion, as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.”<sup>1</sup> When thinking about the challenges that are faced by any identified vulnerable population, it is important to consider the variability of any one challenge, as well as the multiple categories that one person can experience at any given time. This complicates response to mass violence incidents because it requires an assessment of need for each person rather than relying on a single category of vulnerability to define what a given person will need.</p>
<p>Vulnerabilities span the age continuum, and it is important to understand that people often depend on multiple agencies to meet their specific needs on a daily basis. Recognizing that there are variable layers of vulnerability within defined “at-risk” groups often requires that agencies collaborate to meet the needs that one person may have. This dynamic ensures that every effort is made to provide the most comprehensive resources available utilizing all known resources. Regional differences may require the inclusion of representatives from tribal nations and religious organizations that are specific to the area and the needs of impacted victims and survivors.</p>
<figure id="attachment_73956" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-73956" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-73956" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-542024210-300x202.jpg" alt="A woman leave a sign for the victims of the Pulse Nightclub shooting at the front of the nightclub building on June 21, 2016 in Orlando, Florida. " width="300" height="202" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-542024210-300x202.jpg 300w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-542024210-1024x689.jpg 1024w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-542024210-768x517.jpg 768w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-542024210-1536x1034.jpg 1536w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-542024210-2048x1379.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-73956" class="wp-caption-text">Photo by Gerardo Mora/Getty Images</figcaption></figure>
<p>During mass casualty events, marginalized groups or individuals are at an increased risk of compounded negative impacts based on their vulnerability and may experience multiple areas of marginalization that complicate both their short- and long-term recovery in the aftermath of an incident. It is important to assess and be informed of all known vulnerable groups within impacted communities. A comprehensive assessment that is completed as part of the planning process can munity partners may be needed in the event a response plan is activated. Access to an appropriate array of resources may be impacted by both availability and location within or external to the victims’ familiar comfort zone.</p>
<h4><em>Example: Pulse Nightclub Victim</em></h4>
<p>The complexity of any individual that law enforcement encounters impacts the overall success of a coordinated law enforcement and community response. Figure 2 is a depiction of one person’s needs assessment after the Pulse nightclub shooting. The central vulnerability is the person’s identification as LGBTQ, which can have impacts on housing, family life, and access to loved ones in hospitals. What becomes clear when assessing the person’s needs is that there are also many vulnerabilities for the victim that are not directly related to the person’s LGBTQ identity but are complicated by it, such as food insecurity, employment challenges, and medical needs. Mental health challenges may or may not be related to the individual’s identification as LGBTQ but will need to be addressed. (See Figure 2.)</p>
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<td style="width: 100%;"><strong><span style="color: #0a7e8c;">FIGURE 2: Intersectionality</span></strong></td>
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<td style="width: 100%;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-73954" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Hughes_Fig-2_edited-1024x586.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="458" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Hughes_Fig-2_edited-1024x586.jpg 1024w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Hughes_Fig-2_edited-300x172.jpg 300w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Hughes_Fig-2_edited-768x440.jpg 768w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Hughes_Fig-2_edited-1536x879.jpg 1536w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Hughes_Fig-2_edited-2048x1172.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></td>
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<h3><span style="color: #0a7e8c;"><strong>First Responder Vulnerability</strong></span></h3>
<p>A unique vulnerability that must take center stage during a mass violence response is the stressful history of many law enforcement and other first responders, such as fire, EMS, and dispatch personnel. Mass violence or domestic terrorism are incidents that have a size and scope that exceed most other incidents to which these personnel have responded. The sights and sounds of extreme and seemingly random violence can put further stress on personnel who are likely to be carrying history and stories from their jobs that leave them vulnerable to vicarious trauma and other complications based on accumulated responses to stressful or negative situations. These personnel are often part of the community and may know the victims, thereby enhancing their personal trauma.</p>
<figure id="attachment_73960" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-73960" style="width: 400px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-73960" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-540912284-300x200.jpg" alt="ORLANDO, FL - JUNE 17: Surrounded by members of federal, state and local agencies, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer (L) looks on as Red Cross volunteer Amy Decker (R) speaks at a press conference to provide an update on the assistance being provided to victims' families at the Orland Family Assistance Center, at Camping World Stadium, June 17, 2016 in Orlando, Florida. The shooting at Pulse Nightclub, which killed 49 people and injured 53, is the worst mass-shooting event in American history. (" width="400" height="267" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-540912284-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-540912284-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-540912284-768x512.jpg 768w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-540912284-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-540912284-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-73960" class="wp-caption-text">Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images</figcaption></figure>
<p>The tactical response to the Pulse nightclub shooting was extremely challenging for responders as it included horrific sights and smells of death and a prolonged hostage situation. The Orlando, Florida, Police Department assigned a mental health incident commander after the shooting to help monitor responders’ reactions and define strategies for leadership to consider in the department’s response. Many responders self-deployed to the scene, which increased the possibility of them having difficulty managing their reactions without support. A key finding during this time was that many did not believe that traditional, existing supports (EAP, CISM teams) were sufficient for their needs.<sup>2</sup></p>
<h3><span style="color: #0a7e8c;"><strong>Strategies for Serving Vulnerable Populations</strong></span></h3>
<p>Based on the knowledge that specific populations are present, a plan can be developed that recognizes likely needs and pinpoints essential support services. It is imperative to assess these various needs in partnership with local organizations and agencies that may already be serving vulnerable populations in the community and can cohesively adjust during any mass violence event to reduce barriers.</p>
<ol style="font-weight: bold;">
<li>Develop a dynamic and flexible response plan that includes all relevant stakeholders. <span style="font-weight: normal;">Agencies should use the existing emergency management population assessment to identify vulnerable populations within the community, and tap into existing agencies and coalitions that meet the needs of specific vulnerable populations on a routine basis to identify how they can assist during an incident response. Document gaps in potential services and identify plans to access resources outside of the community to fill those gaps.</span></li>
<li>Include agencies that work with vulnerable populations in drills and exercises. <span style="font-weight: normal;">Creating opportunities to engage community partners that serve vulnerable populations can be accomplished with the assistance of local emergency operation centers who regularly schedule exercises to address response to potential mass casualty events. In Orlando, prior to the Pulse incident, there was an established Community Crisis Response Committee that included federal, state, and local victim advocates and specialists. This committee met quarterly to review response plans and define roles and areas of responsibility in the event of a mass casualty event. This committee’s work and involvement in the larger plan improved the response to the Pulse shooting.</span></li>
<li>Develop a mechanism for quickly assessing specific needs of victims immediately after the incident unfolds,<span style="font-weight: normal;"> and for onboarding specific agencies that can meet those needs.</span></li>
<li>Work with local, state, and national organizations that work with victims of crime to develop activation and coordination plans for response to mass violence and domestic terrorism incidents.<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
These organizations can include the following:</span></li>
</ol>
<ul>
<li>FBI’s Victim Services Response Team (VSRT)</li>
<li>Local victim advocates</li>
<li>State-level crisis response team (Florida Crisis Response Team (FCRT), an affiliate of the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA) responded to the Pulse nightclub shooting)</li>
<li>National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA) Crisis Response Teams</li>
<li>The American Red Cross</li>
<li>State-level disaster mental health–trained teams</li>
</ul>
<ol style="font-weight: bold;" start="5;">
<li>Develop a strategy for connecting with people who are not from the area (victims and loved ones) to ensure that all have access to the available services. <span style="font-weight: normal;">This will likely include a website that is specific to services related to the incident. After the October 1, 2017, shooting in Las Vegas, the Vegas Strong Resiliency Center and organizations such as NOVA provided website access to information and online crisis intervention to support victims and survivors build resilience in the aftermath of that event regardless of location.</span></li>
<li>Develop a robust plan to assist law enforcement and additional first responders manage their reactions to the incident, <span style="font-weight: normal;">to include short- and long-term strategies for self-monitoring and support.</span></li>
</ol>
<h3><span style="color: #0a7e8c;"><strong>Before It’s Too Late</strong></span></h3>
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<td style="width: 100%;"><strong><span style="color: #ffffff;">IACP RESOURCES</span></strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square; font-weight: bold; color: #ffffff;">
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://www.theiacp.org/projects/enhancing-law-enforcement-response-to-victims-elerv" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Enhancing Law Enforcement Response to Victims (ELERV)</span></a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://www.theiacp.org/topics/mass-casualty-events-and-terrorism" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Mass Casualty Events and Terrorism</span></a></span></li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://www.theiacp.org/resources/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong><span style="color: #ffffff;">theIACP.org</span></strong></a></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square; font-weight: bold; color: #ffffff;">
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/why-is-a-victim-management-response-important"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Why Is a Victim Management Response Important? The Toronto Police Service’s Approach to Victims of an Extreme Event</span></a></span></li>
</ul>
</td>
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</table>
<p>No community can say violence will not happen there. However, communities and law enforcement agencies can invest in the commitment to create a comprehensive response plan with the ultimate hope that the plan will never be needed. If communities and agencies fail to plan and a mass casualty event occurs, it is then too late. It is also too late to start to think about the community’s most vulnerable residents and what their specific needs will be during those terrifying moments and beyond. <span style="font-family: Webdings;"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.0.3/72x72/1f6e1.png" alt="🛡" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></span></p>
<aside class="pullout pullout--wide alignleft">This product was supported in part by cooperative agreement number 2020-V7-GX-K001 Improving Community Preparedness to Assist Victims of Mass Violence or Domestic Terrorism: Training and Technical Assistance, awarded by the Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.</aside>
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<h3><span style="color: #0a7e8c;"><a style="color: #0a7e8c;" href="https://www.trynova.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NOVA—National Organization for Victim Assistance</a></span></h3>
<figure id="attachment_73947" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-73947" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-73947 size-medium" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-919093410-300x196.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="196" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-919093410-300x196.jpg 300w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-919093410-1024x669.jpg 1024w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-919093410-768x502.jpg 768w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-919093410-1536x1004.jpg 1536w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-919093410-2048x1338.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-73947" class="wp-caption-text">Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</figcaption></figure>
<p>NOVA provides disaster relief to victims of crime, mass casualty/domestic terrorism events or survivors of natural disasters in the form of crisis response. The goal is to assist victims and survivors to understand and normalize their reactions to increasingly abnormal situations and allow them to begin their physical and emotional recovery.</p>
<p>The NOVA team and its affiliate, the Florida Crisis Response Team (FCRT), provided the core of volunteers for the Pulse nightclub shooting, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas School shooting, and the Surfside Building collapse in Miami.</p>
<p>The NOVA team has also participated in national responses, including the Oklahoma City bombing, 9/11, Las Vegas, Uvalde, South Florida, Buffalo, and many more.</p>
<p>The NOVA team provides a wide breadth of knowledge and experience for the support of vulnerable populations, which are critical for recovery in the aftermath of a mass casualty event. They provide the foundation for building extended community-based services that may last months or years. Their efforts can provide immediate impact within a very short period of time, to include support for death notifications, companioning victims and survivors through Family Assistance Centers, and educating local community leaders and providers on the array of short- and long-term recovery support that will be needed at the community level.</td>
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<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-73948 size-medium alignright" style="color: #ffffff;" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/ICPTTA-Logo-for-callout-300x121.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="121" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/ICPTTA-Logo-for-callout-300x121.jpg 300w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/ICPTTA-Logo-for-callout-1024x414.jpg 1024w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/ICPTTA-Logo-for-callout-768x310.jpg 768w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/ICPTTA-Logo-for-callout.jpg 1500w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><strong><span style="color: #d9d6cf;"><big>ICPTTA</big></span></strong></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.theiacp.org/projects/improving-community-preparedness-to-assist-victims-of-mass-violence-and-domestic-terrorism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Improving Community Preparedness to Assist Victims of Mass Violence or Domestic Terrorism: Training and Technical Assistance</a></strong></span></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">The mission of the ICPTTA program, an Office for Victims of Crime (OVC)–funded program, is to ensure local, state, regional, and tribal jurisdictions across the United States are better prepared to respond to the needs of victims following incidents of criminal mass violence and domestic terrorism (CMV/DT).</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">This is accomplished by</span></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square; color: #ffffff;">
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">leveraging subject matter experts to facilitate relationships, discussions, and plan writing that promote protocols and strategies that address the immediate and long-term needs of victims, families, and first responders</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">providing individualized training and technical assistance to communities to assess current plans and identify needed action steps for improvement</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #ffffff;">augmenting existing emergency response plans to ensure effective integration of all needed stakeholders into a response</span></li>
</ul>
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<aside class="pullout pullout--wide alignleft"></p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft wp-image-73964 size-thumbnail" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Hughes-2-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Hughes-2-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Hughes-2-512x510.jpg 512w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></p>
<p><strong>Tara Hughes</strong>, LCSW-R, is the project director for the Improving Community Preparedness to Assist Victims of Mass Violence or Domestic Terrorism: Training and Technical Assistance Program (ICP TTA) at ICF, Inc. She has experience in trauma counseling and crisis response and is a subject matter expert in mass violence response.</p>
<p></aside>
<aside class="pullout pullout--wide alignleft"></p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft wp-image-73963 size-thumbnail" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Moulton-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" /><strong>Christine Moulton</strong> is the director of the University of Central Florida Victim Services program where she has worked for over 20 years. Additionally, she is the regional coordinator for the Florida Crisis Response Team, a member of the IACP Victim Services Committee, and a participant in multiple emergency planning work groups and task forces.</p>
<p></aside>
<p><strong>Notes:</strong></p>
<p><sup>1</sup><em>Oxford Languages</em> s.v. “intersectionality.”</p>
<p><sup>2</sup>Frank Straub et al., <em>Rescue, Response, and Resilience: A Critical Incident Review of the Orlando Public Safety Response to the Attack on the Pulse Nightclub </em>(Washington D.C.: Community Oriented Policing Services, 2017), 85.</p>
<hr />
<p>Please cite as</p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;">Tara Hughes and Christine Moulton, “Planning for the Unpredictable: Developing the Tools to Serve Victims of Mass Violence,” <em>Police Chief</em> 90, no. 6 (2023): 52–57.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
<p>The post <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/planning-for-the-unpredictable/">Planning for the Unpredictable</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org">Police Chief Magazine</a>.</p>
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</item>
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<title>Better Connections for Better Outcomes</title>
<link>https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/better-connections-for-better-outcomes/</link>
<comments>https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/better-connections-for-better-outcomes/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Margaret White]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Jun 2023 12:04:26 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Victim Services]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[intellectual and developmental disabilities]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[victim needs]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[victim services]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/?p=73911</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<p>People with intellectual disabilities are disproportionately impacted by victimization. An intellectual disability is a disability characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning (reasoning, learning, problem-solving) and in adaptive behavior, which covers a range of everyday social and practical skills. Individuals with intellectual disabilities are targeted for a variety of reasons.</p>
<p>Approximately 3 percent of people have an intellectual disability. However, people with intellectual disabilities represent a much higher percentage of crime victims because they are at greater risk for victimization than people without disabilities.</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/better-connections-for-better-outcomes/">Better Connections for Better Outcomes</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org">Police Chief Magazine</a>.</p>
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p> </p>
<p>People with intellectual disabilities are disproportionately impacted by victimization.<sup>1</sup> An intellectual disability is a disability characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning (reasoning, learning, problem-solving) and in adaptive behavior, which covers a range of everyday social and practical skills.<sup>2</sup> Individuals with intellectual disabilities are targeted for a variety of reasons.<sup>3</sup></p>
<p>Approximately 3 percent of people have an intellectual disability. However, people with intellectual disabilities represent a much higher percentage of crime victims because they are at greater risk for victimization than people without disabilities.</p>
<p>According to findings from the Bureau of Justice Statistics:</p>
<ul>
<li>People with intellectual disabilities are sexually assaulted at seven times the rate of people without disabilities.</li>
<li>The rate of violence overall is higher for women with disabilities.</li>
<li>The rate of violence committed against persons with cognitive disabilities is higher than violence against those with other types of disabilities.</li>
<li>One in five violent crime victims with disabilities believe they were targeted due to their disability.</li>
<li>Twenty-one percent of unreported violence against persons with disabilities was not reported because the victim did not think the police would help.</li>
<li>Sixty-five percent of rapes or sexual assaults against persons with disabilities were committed against those with multiple disability types, the highest percentage among the crime types examined.</li>
<li>Forty percent of violence against persons with disabilities was committed by persons the victims knew well or who were casual acquaintances, which is higher than the rates for persons without disabilities.<sup>4</sup></li>
</ul>
<h3><span style="color: #01367c;"><strong>Considerations for Connection</strong></span></h3>
<p>It is often difficult for law enforcement to know if a victim has an intellectual disability. People with intellectual disabilities can vary widely in their abilities to effectively communicate, understand directions or concepts, or speak for themselves. In order to effectively respond to victims with intellectual disabilities, there are a few things to consider. These considerations can be used universally with all victims to build rapport, create a safe environment, and get the best possible outcome.</p>
<p><span style="color: #0071b9;"><strong>Build connections.</strong> </span>Does someone who works with individuals with intellectual disabilities sit on a Coordinated Community Response (CCR) team? Does the local advocacy agency have someone who has experience working with victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence with intellectual disabilities? Are there advocates in the state that work specifically with victims with disabilities? Take some time on the front end to build these types of connections. These people can be an asset to the police; provide insight into the lives of people with disabilities; and most importantly, can be offered as support to individuals with intellectual disabilities who have experienced abuse. A multidisciplinary team approach to these cases is the best approach. Building these connections builds trust and makes it easier to pull a team together to provide the best outcomes.</p>
<p><span style="color: #0071b9;"><strong>Utilize a child advocacy center (CAC).</strong> </span>Take some time to talk with prosecutors and the CAC to discuss best practice for using a CAC to do a forensic interview on adults with intellectual disabilities. This has proven to be helpful in many cases. It is important to have this conversation prior to scheduling an interview. It is also important to point out that just because a forensic interview is done at a CAC, it doesn’t mean that the adult victim should be treated or talked to as a child.</p>
<p><span style="color: #0071b9;"><strong>Gather information.</strong> </span>If possible, before an interview with a victim who has an intellectual disability, find out more about their disability and their day-to-day routine. This may better inform the interviewer about the person’s communication and support needs. This is not always possible to know before an interview, but it would be helpful for first responders to make observations and gather information about the individual’s disability so the investigator can be prepared and get the best interview possible.</p>
<p><span style="color: #0071b9;"><strong>Provide advocacy and support.</strong> </span>The best practice is to have an advocate who understands his or her role and the boundaries of a police interview available to support the victim. This advocate may be part of the police department or may be community based, depending on the agency’s specific victim services program and capacity. If the agency has taken the time to build relationships, it can have a protocol already in place to activate an advocate response. This advocate is there for the victim, but advocates can also be an asset to law enforcement. Victims who feel safe, heard, and supported are more likely to stay engaged throughout the criminal justice process. Advocates can be the ones who keep the victim informed by communicating updates, answering questions, and advocating for resources, freeing law enforcement to focus on the investigation.</p>
<p><span style="color: #0071b9;"><strong>Build rapport.</strong> </span>Take some time to talk with the victim. Ask easy questions about the victim’s life or day-to-day activities. Make small talk. This gives the interviewer time to observe the victim and make note of any communication challenges, such as simplified vocabulary, and to build trust. Use this time to create a safe atmosphere for the victim. Officers and investigators should be aware of their placement in the room, their tone of voice, and their authoritative posture. Many individuals with intellectual disabilities are taught that police are helpers. Taking the time to talk with them and ask them what they need to feel most comfortable creates a comfortable space and pace for them.</p>
<p><span style="color: #0071b9;"><strong>Don’t assume.</strong></span> Don’t assume that the victim is incapable of understanding or communicating. It is up to the interviewer to ask questions in a way that the victim understands. Use language that isn’t jargon or acronyms. Simplify the language. This doesn’t mean talking to the victim in a childlike way. Ask open-ended questions but break them down into smaller steps, if needed. For example, instead of saying “Tell me what happened,” ask “Tell me what you did when you woke up.” “Tell me what you did when you were at work today.” Ask victims about the incident by using their description of what they saw, felt, or heard. They may not be able to tell you the exact day or time, but they may be able to tell you it was around a particular holiday or that it was snowing. These descriptors will help build the case and may corroborate the victim’s story. If the victim is an adult, don’t assume that they are childlike, understand like a child, or have had only child life experience. If the victim is a 45-year-old woman with an intellectual disability, recognize that she has had 45 years of life experience, which likely included other trauma.</p>
<table class=" alignright" style="width: 48%; background-color: #01367c; border-style: none;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td colspan="3" width="623"><span style="color: #ffffff;"><big><strong>13 Considerations for Successful Victim Interviews</strong></big></span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="329">
<ol style="color: #ffffff;">
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ol style="color: #ffffff; font-size: 18px;">
<li>Build connections.</li>
<li>Utilize a child advocacy center.</li>
<li>Gather information.</li>
<li>Provide advocacy and support.</li>
<li>Build rapport.</li>
<li>Don’t assume.</li>
<li>Ask the victim first.</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
</td>
<td width="4"></td>
<td width="290">
<ol style="color: #ffffff; font-size: 18px;" start="8;">
<li>Clarify.</li>
<li>Be aware of compliance issues.</li>
<li>Be patient.</li>
<li>Refrain from judgement.</li>
<li>Connect victims to resources.</li>
<li>Relax.</li>
</ol>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>In addition, don’t assume that the victim is incompetent to stand trial or has a guardian. Not everyone with an intellectual disability has a guardian. If an individual does have a guardian, it doesn’t mean that the person can’t tell his or her own story or consent to certain things. Competency for guardianship is not the same as competency to stand trial. If the victim does have a guardian, notification may be important, but do not assume that someone has a guardian or that a certain person is the victim’s guardian.</p>
<p><span style="color: #0071b9;"><strong>Ask the victim first.</strong> </span>The expert is the victim. The victims are people who know what they need and how they live. Always ask the victim for the information needed. If they aren’t able to answer the questions, then it may be appropriate to look to the guardian or other support people to fill in the blanks.</p>
<p><span style="color: #0071b9;"><strong>Clarify.</strong> </span>Victims with intellectual disabilities may not use the same language that an investigator would typically hear when interviewing victims without disabilities. They may use different words for body parts, actions, or events. Take time to ask them what something means. Don’t assume that their definition is the same as the interviewer’s. If the interviewer is not sure if the victim fully understood the question, ask the question another way to see if the same answer is given.</p>
<p><span style="color: #0071b9;"><strong>Be aware of compliance issues.</strong> </span>Individuals with intellectual disabilities are usually brought up to be compliant. Typically, as children grow and learn, they question authority and ask “why?” Children with disabilities don’t always have the ability or aren’t allowed to question authority. As people with disabilities age, parents or others in their life often teach them to do as they are directed. This can create a challenge when interviewing someone with an intellectual disability. Victims may answer in the way they think the police want them to answer. They often want to please the person in authority and not be in trouble. This can also be something the perpetrator is aware of and takes advantage of.</p>
<p><span style="color: #0071b9;"><strong>Be patient.</strong> </span>Interviews for people with intellectual disabilities should be allotted extra time. If an interview is done quickly without using the suggestions herein, it is likely that the interviewer will miss some important details. Be willing to ask a question and wait for the response. After a reasonable time, if the victim does not respond or reply appropriately, calmly repeat the question—using different words. It is sometimes helpful to have victims explain in their own words what they understood the interviewer to have said. This can help determine whether the questions are clear or if they need to be modified.</p>
<p><span style="color: #0071b9;"><strong>Refrain from judgment.</strong> </span>Do not include a person’s IQ in the report or interview questions. A person’s IQ does not give a full picture of his or her life or an accurate portrayal of the person’s functioning. Don’t include unconfirmed diagnoses or judgments of the victim in reports (e.g., victim not credible, victim unreliable, victim won’t make a good witness).</p>
<p><span style="color: #0071b9;"><strong>Connect victims to resources.</strong></span> Make sure that victims are connected to services or resources to ensure that they are safe when they leave the interview. The best way to ensure this is to connect them to in-person advocacy. Don’t just leave them with a brochure or a phone number.</p>
<p><span style="color: #0071b9;"><strong>Relax.</strong></span> Realize that the police department is not alone when responding to a crime victim with an intellectual disability. There are people in the community who can help investigators get the best interview and build the best possible case. As long as the interviewer’s intentions are respectful and he or she is willing to learn from each interaction with the victim, the victim will feel heard and supported.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-73924" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Crime_Rates_for_People_with_Disabilities-1024x593.png" alt="" width="863" height="500" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Crime_Rates_for_People_with_Disabilities-1024x593.png 1024w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Crime_Rates_for_People_with_Disabilities-300x174.png 300w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Crime_Rates_for_People_with_Disabilities-768x445.png 768w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Crime_Rates_for_People_with_Disabilities.png 1353w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 863px) 100vw, 863px" /></p>
<h3><span style="color: #01367c;"><strong>Putting It Into Practice</strong></span></h3>
<p>Putting all or many of the preceding recommendations to use can greatly improve the outcome of an investigation. Detective/Sergeant Peter Grimyser, University of Wisconsin–Madison Police Department, recalls a case where the victim was a young woman with an intellectual disability.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>In 2019, I began working a sexual assault investigation that had occurred in a building at the University of Wisconsin. The survivor did not initially report the sexual assault. Approximately six months after the assault, the survivor came forward because the offender had begun to stalk the survivor by showing up at her workplace. The survivor had an intellectual disability, yet she could function somewhat independently.</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>I consulted with members of our SART (Sexual Assault Response Team) and the survivor’s support person (her mother), and we decided to do the interview with the survivor at a child advocacy center with a trained forensic interviewer. The day of the forensic interview, the survivor shut down and was not able to participate in the interview.</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>We formed a team that included a social worker from the Adult Protective Services (who specialized in working with adults with intellectual disabilities) from Dane County Human Services, a detective from the City of Madison Police Department who had a prior history of working with the survivor and was also investigating the stalking, and the survivor’s mother.</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>Roughly a week later, we met with the survivor to build rapport. We did not even talk about the sexual assault.</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>About a week after the rapport build-ing meeting, we met for a second interview. This time we met in a conference room at my police department. The interview team consisted of both detectives and the social worker. We also included a support dog from Dogs On Call, Inc., and a canine handler. The social worker was invaluable because she helped us with clarifying some of our questions. The canine handler and his canine were important because the support dog helped keep the survivor calm and relaxed. During the interview, we learned of a second previously unreported sexual assault by the same offender that had occurred around the time as the first sexual assault.</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>The perpetrator was arrested, but more than a year went by without movement, mainly because of the COVID shutdown. The offender had requested a speedy trial, and so we began to prepare for the court trial. We expanded the team to include the deputy district attorney who was prosecuting the case, the victim/witness case manager, the survivor’s therapist, and Pam Malin, a disability victim advocate from Disability Rights Wisconsin. Three months before the trial, we began meeting with the survivor at the courthouse to build connections and rapport with the new team members. In particular, we wanted to try to relieve some of the survivor’s fear of having to testify in court in front of the offender, who she was scared of seeing again.</em></p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>In July 2021, the case went to trial. The survivor testified and did an amazing job. The offender was found guilty of two counts of sexual assault of a person who has a disability and false imprisonment. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison and 20 years extended supervision.</em></p>
<aside class="pullout alignleft"><strong>IACP RESOURCES</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>One Mind</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>theIACP.org</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Interacting with Individuals Who Have Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities</li>
<li>The Lotus Project</li>
</ul>
<p></aside>
<p>This case is a great example of how using these tools helped to build a case that had a positive outcome. Investigators and advocates are always glad to see a successful prosecution, but more importantly, the goal of these professionals is to ensure that victims feel safe, empowered to use their voices, and heard. When the case was done and the sentence was set, the victim declared that she is no longer a victim, she is now a survivor. And indeed, with the help and support of a great team, she survived and will thrive as she moves forward in her life.</p>
<p>Law enforcement officers have stated that they often feel ill-equipped to respond to victims with disabilities. It is hoped that this information and these recommendations will be useful when responding to victims of crime with intellectual disabilities and will also be helpful universally for responding to all victims of crime. Ultimately, slowing down, building trust, being a good listener, and working together as a team to provide support to victims can go a long way in getting a better outcome. <span style="font-family: Webdings;"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.0.3/72x72/1f6e1.png" alt="🛡" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></span></p>
<aside class="pullout pullout--wide alignleft"></p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft wp-image-73929 size-thumbnail" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Malin-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Malin-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Malin-300x300.jpg 300w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Malin-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Malin-768x768.jpg 768w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Malin-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Malin-2048x2048.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></p>
<p><strong>Pam Malin</strong> has worked at the intersection of disability and abuse for over 35 years. She is currently working at Disability Rights Wisconsin in the Victim Advocacy Program. She has worked collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams throughout her career, including prosecutors, victim witnesses, investigators, forensic interviewers, first responders, and community advocates. </aside>
<aside class="pullout pullout--wide alignleft"></p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft wp-image-73927 size-thumbnail" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Grimyser-scaled-e1685018956381-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></p>
<p><strong>Peter Grimyser</strong> is the detective/sergeant at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department, where he supervises the detective bureau, court services, and evidence room. He has 24 years of law enforcement experience, including 17 years as a detective. He is also a member of the Dane County Sexual Assault Response Team (SART). </aside>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Notes:</strong></p>
<p><sup>1</sup>Leigh Ann Davis, <a href="https://www.dcjs.virginia.gov/sites/dcjs.virginia.gov/files/part_12_victimization_-_people_with_id_in_cj_system.pdf"><em>People with Intellectual Disabilities in the Criminal Justice Systems: Victims & Suspects</em></a> (Washington, DC: The Arc, 2009).</p>
<p><sup>2</sup>American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, “<a href="https://www.aaidd.org/intellectual-disability/definition">Defining Criteria for Intellectual Disability</a>.”</p>
<p><sup>3</sup>National Institutes of Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, “<a href="https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/factsheets/idds#f1">Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDDS)</a>.”</p>
<p><sup>4</sup>Erika Harrell, “<a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/capd0915st.pdf#page=6">Crimes Against Persons with Disabilities, 2009-2015 – Statistical Tables</a>,” Bureau of Justice Statistics, July 2017.</p>
<hr />
<p>Please cite as</p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;">Pam Malin and Peter Grimyser, “Better Connections for Better Outcomes: Improving Response to Crime Victims with Intellectual Disabilities,” <em>Police Chief</em> 90, no. 6 (June 2023): 44–47.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The post <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/better-connections-for-better-outcomes/">Better Connections for Better Outcomes</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org">Police Chief Magazine</a>.</p>
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<title>Access to Justice for Cross-Border Victims</title>
<link>https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/access-to-justice-for-cross-border-victims/</link>
<comments>https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/access-to-justice-for-cross-border-victims/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Margaret White]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Jun 2023 12:00:22 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Human & Civil Rights]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Topics]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Victim Services]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[collisions]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[cross-border victims]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[human trafficking]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[vulnerable populations]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/?p=73883</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<p>Access to justice can be challenging for vulnerable populations, particularly where there is a cross-border, international dimension to the crime. Cross-border victims—be they children, persons with a disability, victims of terrorism, human trafficking victims/survivors, or road traffic collision victims—have unique needs. Language, culture, education, age, access to finances, immigration status, mental health, and trauma can impact whether a cross-border victim reports a crime; how victims access and understand information provided to them; and how they communicate with law enforcement agencies.</p>
<p>Transparency and accountability around a law enforcement agency’s victim-centered approach can help reduce challenges around access to justice and any fear vulnerable populations and cross-border victims may have when trying to navigate an unfamiliar criminal justice system. Furthermore, there is a need for law enforcement agencies to develop a framework for a victim-centered approach that considers the unique needs of cross-border victims, survivors, and family members.</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/access-to-justice-for-cross-border-victims/">Access to Justice for Cross-Border Victims</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org">Police Chief Magazine</a>.</p>
]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: right;"><span style="color: #808080;"><sup>Photo by John Moore/Getty Images</sup></span></p>
<p>Access to justice can be challenging for vulnerable populations, particularly where there is a cross-border, international dimension to the crime. Cross-border victims—be they children, persons with a disability, victims of terrorism, human trafficking victims/survivors, or road traffic collision victims—have unique needs. Language, culture, education, age, access to finances, immigration status, mental health, and trauma can impact whether a cross-border victim reports a crime; how victims access and understand information provided to them; and how they communicate with law enforcement agencies.</p>
<p>Transparency and accountability around a law enforcement agency’s victim-centered approach can help reduce challenges around access to justice and any fear vulnerable populations and cross-border victims may have when trying to navigate an unfamiliar criminal justice system. Furthermore, there is a need for law enforcement agencies to develop a framework for a victim-centered approach that considers the unique needs of cross-border victims, survivors, and family members.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #f26522;"><strong>Cross-Border Victims</strong></span></h3>
<p>Cross-border victims can include tourists, business travelers, undocumented migrants, refugees, or individuals who have student or temporary work visas and other temporary visas. In some instances, the victim may be a citizen of the country where the crime took place, but their family and next of kin may be residents in another country.</p>
<h4><span style="color: #0071b9;">Cross-Border Victims: Tourists</span></h4>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-71207 size-medium" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-1428689275-300x202.jpg" alt="Irish police, An Garda Síochána, walking in Dublin" width="300" height="202" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-1428689275-300x202.jpg 300w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-1428689275-1024x689.jpg 1024w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-1428689275-768x517.jpg 768w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-1428689275-1536x1034.jpg 1536w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-1428689275-2048x1379.jpg 2048w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-1428689275-272x182.jpg 272w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<p>Different countries have different supports available to cross-border victims in the short, medium, and long term. Ireland, for example, established a nongovernmental organization (NGO), called the Irish Tourist Assistance Services (ITAS), which supports tourists who have been impacted by crime. For example, a tourist’s passport, wallet, and phone may be stolen. Specialized organizations, such as ITAS, can work with the police of the jurisdiction (An Garda Síochána in Ireland, for instance), embassies, victims, airlines, and hotels to support with such short-term needs as accessing identification, travel documentation, accommodation, or supports to help a victim return home. Such an approach offers a one-stop shop for victims. The alternative is that a victim may have to engage with multiple organizations in a language they do not speak and in a system they do not know or understand. NGOs such as ITAS are often rare internationally; instead, it can be left to law enforcement and the victim to work with government departments such as ministries of foreign affairs, homeland security, or global affairs (they are referred to differently internationally) to facilitate and refer victims to localized supports.</p>
<h4><span style="color: #0071b9;">Cross-Border Victims: Family Members</span></h4>
<p>When a cross-border victim suffers serious injuries or death due to a criminal offense, supporting the victim’s or family’s needs becomes more challenging. Where there is a deceased victim in homicide cases, road traffic collisions, or in noncriminal cases such as suicides, family members who live abroad can find it difficult to navigate a foreign criminal justice system. Time differences; language and cultural barriers; and trying to get access to visas to travel, in a swift manner, are challenging realities for the families of cross-border victims. These challenges are exacerbated if a victim has a physical disability that makes it difficult or near impossible for them to travel without appropriate supports being put in place. The repatriation; attendance at memorials (terrorism/mass victimization); and associated costs, depending on if supports are available from governments and NGOs, can come at a financial and mental cost for the victims and/or their families at a time of great trauma. If victims do not know about their rights, then they cannot access them. Law enforcement agencies can support victims and family members getting access to their rights by providing relevant, respectful information in a trauma-informed manner based on cultural humility.</p>
<h4><span style="color: #0071b9;">Cross-Border Victims: Human Trafficking</span></h4>
<p>Internationally, human traffickers commit their crime on both sides of a border as well as wholly within countries. The human disposition to hope for a better life often finds individuals falling victim to criminals who seek to exploit the most vulnerable. Human trafficking is a crime of compelling another person into commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor. Some groups with lived experience are being perceived to be more vulnerable, depending on the nature and type of crime. Human trafficking should be seen in a broad context as a crime of gender-based violence that also impacts 2SLGBTQI+ (Two Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Intersex +) individuals.</p>
<p class="Figures---Sidebars_Side-Bar-Title" lang="en-US"><aside class="pullout pullout--wide alignleft"><big><strong>U.S. Department of Homeland Security – Center for Countering Human Trafficking</strong></big></p>
<p> </p>
<p class="Figures---Sidebars_Sidebar-Paragraph" lang="en-US">One example of a U.S. law enforcement agency supporting victims of human trafficking internationally is the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Center for Countering Human Trafficking (CCHT). It was established in 2020 as the first unified coordination center for holistically countering human trafficking and the importation of goods produced with forced labor. The CCHT integrates the efforts of its 16 DHS component agencies. The CCHT leverages DHS resources and authorities, including those of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), to</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li class="Figures---Sidebars_Side-Bar-Bullets" lang="en-US">proactively identify, disrupt, and dismantle complex domestic and cross-border human trafficking organizations and minimize the risk they pose to national security and public safety;</li>
<li class="Figures---Sidebars_Side-Bar-Bullets" lang="en-US">utilize a victim-centered approach;</li>
<li class="Figures---Sidebars_Side-Bar-Bullets" lang="en-US">prevent the importation into the United States of goods produced by forced labor and prosecute those criminally benefiting from such forced labor; and</li>
<li class="Figures---Sidebars_Side-Bar-Bullets" lang="en-US">offer national and international outreaches and trainings to both public and private sectors on all human trafficking–related topics.</aside></li>
</ul>
<p>The continuum of the crime of human trafficking can fall within multiple jurisdictions and time zones. Cooperation and information sharing, within the rule of law, with law enforcement agencies across the world is required to identify victims. Integrated response models enable and empower victims to feel safe in coming forward. Fear for loved ones in other countries and the impact not only on personal safety but on the safety of others can be a determining factor in the control and fear that can continue to exist even if a victim chooses to report a crime. Success from a law enforcement perspective in human trafficking cases should not solely focus on a successful prosecution. A victim-centered approach measures success through a human lens based on whether a victim is able to safely leave human trafficking and, in time, reintegrate into society.</p>
<h4><span style="color: #0071b9;">Cross-Border Victims: European and International Contexts</span></h4>
<p>Support for victims in the country where the crime took place may be predicated upon the person being a permanent resident or citizen of that country. There are some exceptions to this in some jurisdictions, such as for human trafficking victims and victims of terrorism, but it varies internationally. From a European Union (EU) perspective, the Victim’s Rights Directive, an EU law that EU member states were required to implement, dictates that if you are a victim in one member state, you should receive the same rights to information, support, and protection as you would in another. In this regard, the Victims’ Rights Directive provides:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>Member States should take the necessary measures to ensure that the rights set out in this Directive are not made conditional on the victim’s residence status in their territory or on the victim’s citizenship or nationality. Reporting a crime and participating in criminal proceedings do not create any rights regarding the residence status of the victim.</em><sup>1</sup></p>
<p>Furthermore, for the sake of clarity, the Victims’ Rights Directive provides that it</p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>applies in relation to criminal offences committed in the Union and to criminal proceedings that take place in the Union. It confers rights on victims of extra-territorial offences only in relation to criminal proceedings that take place in the Union.</em></p>
<p>There is no international treaty that outlines the rights that must be afforded to cross-border victims, although work is ongoing internationally with respect to the different and distinct needs of cross-border victims, including victims of human trafficking, child exploitation, and terrorism. The EU, for example, has dedicated laws that related to victims of human trafficking, child exploitation and terrorism, while the United Nations has created guidelines with respect to supporting victims of terrorism.<sup>2</sup> Organizations such as the International Network Supporting Victims of Terrorism and Mass Violence (INVICTM) support collaboration between law enforcement and victim support organizations internationally to connect victims to localized supports in their countries of origin. The needs of victims of terrorism or victims of mass victimization abroad are often even more complex and having international law enforcement relationships helps connect victims/survivors and family members with the resources that they need.<sup>3</sup> Two resources for cross-border victims of terrorism from a U.S. and an EU perspective worth mentioning are the U.S. Victims of Terrorism Abroad Task Force under the Department of Justice, which supports U.S. citizens who are victims of overseas terrorism and the EU Centre of Expertise for Victims of Terrorism, which offers “expertise, guidance and support to national authorities and victim support organisations.”<sup>4</sup></p>
<p>The variance of rights and supports for cross-border victims and family members internationally illustrates the importance of law enforcement agencies having a victim-centered approach in place to support access to justice for victims and family members.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #f26522;"><strong>Framework for a Victim-Centered Approach</strong></span></h3>
<p>The goal of a victim-centered investigation and prosecution is to focus the investigation and prosecution around the victim while minimizing any undue stress, harm, and trauma to the victim. Using this approach to investigations and prosecutions prioritizes victims’ rights, safety, and needs. While it requires coordinated access to an array of victim support or assistance resources to facilitate safety, access to victim assistance is not tied to prosecutorial decisions or outcomes.<sup>5</sup></p>
<p>The Enhancing Law Enforcement Response to Victims (ELERV) Strategy (available on the IACP website) is an excellent document for law enforcement seeking to enhance their victim-centered approach. Focusing on seven critical needs of victims, the ELERV strategy supports an organizational culture that prioritizes a victim-centered and a human rights approach to policing.</p>
<h4><span style="color: #0071b9;">Case Study: Ontario Provincial Police</span></h4>
<p>The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) in Canada has developed a framework for a victim-centered approach that takes into account the needs of cross-border victims, including victims/survivors of human trafficking, child exploitation, and terrorism and mass violence. It seeks to complement and not contradict the ELERV Strategy, and it offers an example of how one police agency is seeking to consider the needs of cross-border victims, in keeping with a human rights approach to policing.</p>
<p>The focus of the OPP framework for a victim-centered approach</p>
<table class=" alignright" style="height: 376px; width: 300px; border-collapse: collapse; border-style: solid; border-color: #f26522;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 100%;"><big><strong>FIGURE 1:</strong> KEY ELEMENTS FOR UNDERSTANDING NEEDS</big></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 100%;"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-73892 size-medium" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Sigur-Fig_1_KEY_ELEMENTS-284x300.jpg" alt="" width="284" height="300" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Sigur-Fig_1_KEY_ELEMENTS-284x300.jpg 284w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Sigur-Fig_1_KEY_ELEMENTS-969x1024.jpg 969w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Sigur-Fig_1_KEY_ELEMENTS-768x811.jpg 768w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Sigur-Fig_1_KEY_ELEMENTS.jpg 1420w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 284px) 100vw, 284px" /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>is to build a tiered, scalable resilient victim-centred response which empowers victims/survivors and family members, facilitates investigative excellence and supports the health and well-being of our people and our communities.</em><sup>6</sup></p>
<p>The OPP framework has four pillars that are vital for an effective victim-centered approach:</p>
<ol>
<li>Assisting and Understanding the Needs of Victims/Survivors</li>
<li>Community Partnerships and Integrated Response Models</li>
<li>Resourcing, Expertise, Knowledge, and Training</li>
<li>Evaluation and Evidence Based Decision-Making</li>
</ol>
<p>There are three key elements to assisting and understanding a victim’s/survivor’s needs. These are the (1) provision of effective communication and information, (2) the setting of clear expectations, and (3) a victim needs assessment.</p>
<h5><em>Effective Communication and Information</em></h5>
<p>Regardless of the agencies involved, effective communication is needed to facilitate investigative excellence. Communications and information should be</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>respectful, compassionate, and courteous;</li>
<li>clear, concise, and in a format that is easily understood and is easy to access;</li>
<li>provided in a timely and accessible manner;</li>
<li>in a (plain) language and format that the victim/survivor understands; and</li>
<li>inclusive and reflective of the individual needs of the victim/survivor, including basic needs (such as food and shelter), cultural needs, and linguistic needs.<sup>7</sup></li>
</ul>
<h5><em>Clear Expectations</em></h5>
<p>It is important that victims/survivors are aware of law enforcement’s obligations but also their limitations. Guidelines ensure that expectations are clear for victims, family members, and their communities. This is of particular importance for cross-border victims and for victims who may be fearful of law enforcement or concerned about their immigration status. A victim-centered approach should comply with ethical and legal obligations, in keeping with a human rights approach to policing. Expectations should be managed bearing in mind resources, capacity, and operations. The following factors should be considered when seeking to establish clear expectations:</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>The victim’s role in the criminal justice system</li>
<li>Law enforcement’s role in the criminal justice system with its justice partners</li>
<li>How law enforcement will communicate with the victim/survivor about the individual’s case</li>
<li>How the victim communicates with law enforcement about the case</li>
<li>When the victim will receive communication about the case</li>
<li>What accommodations can be provided to the victim</li>
<li>The application of cultural humanity frameworks</li>
<li>Ethical considerations to support professionalism</li>
<li>Integrated response models</li>
</ul>
<h5><em>Victim Needs Assessment</em></h5>
<p>A victim needs assessment can help law enforcement understand and assist with meeting the needs of victims/survivors. Completing such a needs assessment is very important where there is an international or cross-border element.</p>
<p>A victim needs assessment should accomplish the following:</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Ensure the victim/survivor/family is provided information or communications in a format that the victim/survivor or family member identifies as suitable.</li>
<li>Identify if the victim/survivor/family member requires assistance to understand or to be understood.</li>
<li>Identify unique and specific needs of the victim/survivor, including cultural needs.</li>
<li>Identify what law enforcement needs to do, if anything, to help the victim/survivor or family members feel safe. (This question can help set expectations. Sometimes victims have expectations that law enforcement cannot meet. For example, sometimes victims, when asked this question, ask officers to arrest the accused. This gives the officers an opportunity to explain why they can or cannot do that.)</li>
<li>Assist in the return of property in a victim-centered manner.</li>
</ul>
<h3><span style="color: #f26522;"><strong>Implementing a Victim-Centered Approach</strong></span></h3>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-73904 size-medium" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-1398426015-300x203.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="203" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-1398426015-300x203.jpg 300w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-1398426015-1024x694.jpg 1024w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-1398426015-768x520.jpg 768w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-1398426015-1536x1040.jpg 1536w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-1398426015-2048x1387.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<p>A framework for a victim-centered approach can be implemented in practice only through dedicated, trained professionals who have relationships with stakeholders at a local, federal, and international level. These resources, in conjunction with the framework, support access to justice for vulnerable populations and cross-border victims.</p>
<p>The OPP has integrated trained professionals at a detachment (district/jurisdiction) level and within the anti-human trafficking unit. Mirroring the victim specialist programs within the United States, the OPP has hired victim specialists who are civilians with expertise in working with victims/survivors and family members. The victim specialists act as victim liaisons in an investigation to ensure that victims have access to their rights, and the specialists support effective communication and information, clear expectations, and an understanding of victims’ needs in keeping with the framework. The victim specialists utilize the framework and the victim needs assessment to identify and support the needs of cross-border victims. Relationships with stakeholders internationally such as INVICTM, Victim Support Europe, and Victim Support Area have enabled the OPP victim specialists to connect cross-border victims to supports in their countries of origin.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #f26522;"><strong>Collaborative Approach Integrated Response Models</strong></span></h3>
<p>As previously mentioned, multiple criminal justice agencies are often involved in supporting cross-<br />
border victims. It can be challenging for victims to navigate the criminal justice system and the different supports that are available to them such as police-based supports, community supports, and court-based supports.</p>
<h4><span style="color: #0071b9;">Case Study: U.S. Homeland Security Investigations</span></h4>
<p>U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) works in close partnership with other law enforcement agencies in the United States, Canada, and globally to investigate traffickers and support victims/survivors of human trafficking. In accordance with the HSI mission of conducting victim-centered investigations, the Victim Assistance Program (VAP) supports HSI special agents in applying best practices when working with victims in all federal crimes that HSI investigates. VAP’s early involvement is critical because victims’ perceptions of the system can be influenced by the manner in which they are treated at the first response and throughout the criminal justice process.</p>
<p>VAP’s philosophy of assisting crime victims is a direct reflection and commitment of HSI to bring traffickers to justice. HSI victim assistance personnel are unarmed civilians, professionally trained to provide a victim-centered approach when interacting with victims and to treat all victims with respect and dignity.</p>
<p>The victim assistance specialist (VAS) is a subject matter expert in victimology and best practices for assisting victims of crime. The VAS is responsible for working directly with agents, as part of a multidisciplinary team (MDT), to integrate victim assistance throughout the full lifecycle of HSI investigations. The VAS ensures that victims are informed of their rights, assesses victims’ needs, and provides access to resources and crisis response. Victims’ needs are multifaceted and the burden of their pain and loss is immeasurable, which is why a victim-centered approach is so crucial in assisting victims in becoming survivors.</p>
<p>The HSI forensic interview specialist (FIS) is a subject matter expert in the areas of abuse, exploitation, and trauma, as well as child and adult development. All HSI FISs are trained in HSI’s forensic interviewing protocol and are required to have extensive training and years of experience conducting forensic interviews. FISs testify in court when required and provide case consultation and coordination services as well as trainings related to victim and witness interviews. FISs are also part of the MDT.</p>
<p>The HSI agents and VAP personnel work in collaboration with other law enforcement and community partners to support a robust victim-centered approach.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #f26522;"><strong>Communication Sharing</strong></span></h3>
<p>Communication sharing between police, law enforcement, government agencies, and victim support agencies often supports access to justice for victims. Any sharing of information must be balanced with the right to privacy and the rule of law. In cases involving terrorism and mass victimization, challenges can arise in seeking to identify victims for the purposes of family reunification due to the lack of sharing of information between agencies, such as hospitals, law enforcement agencies, and victim support agencies. Each country is unique with respect to their privacy laws and the information that can or cannot be shared. A victim-centered approach and pre-planning for a terrorist or mass casualty event should consider privacy considerations and the sharing of information between agencies, within the rule of law, to support family reunification and access to justice for cross-border victims.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #f26522;"><strong>Conclusion</strong></span></h3>
<p><aside class="pullout alignleft"><strong>IACP RESOURCES</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><a href="https://www.theiacp.org/projects/anti-human-trafficking-training-and-technical-assistance">Anti-Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance</a></li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://www.theiacp.org/resources/"><strong>theIACP.org</strong></a></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/overcoming-fear-building-trust-immigrant-communities">Overcoming Fear and Building Trust with Immigrant Communities and Crime Victims</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/trauma-informed-approach-labor-sex-trafficking">A Trauma-Informed Approach to Labor & Sex Trafficking: What Law Enforcement Leaders Need to Know</a></aside></li>
</ul>
<p>Access to justice and safe justice are at the cornerstone of a balanced criminal justice system. How the police treat, engage with, and understand the needs of the most vulnerable populations from a law enforcement perspective will determine whether police organizations gain the trust of all those they serve. Institutionalized attitudes can be stoic, meaning that any instigator for transformational change must be built upon a human rights approach to policing based on humanity, respect, dignity, and equality for all. A victim-centered approach forms one part of a cultural shift to a human rights approach to policing. While there is a movement internationally to a victim-centered approach, integrating and embedding it into organizational culture takes change management with a clear strategy and framework at its heart. Although, this article focuses on cross-border victims and an understanding of their unique needs, the principles described herein are adaptable and applicable to supporting and understanding all victims from a law enforcement perspective. Law enforcement and victim services professionals must plan today to build a better tomorrow for those they serve. <span style="font-family: Webdings;"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.0.3/72x72/1f6e1.png" alt="🛡" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></span></p>
<aside class="pullout pullout--wide alignleft"><br />
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft wp-image-73906" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Sigur-230x300.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="195" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Sigur-230x300.jpg 230w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Sigur-787x1024.jpg 787w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Sigur-768x1000.jpg 768w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Sigur-1180x1536.jpg 1180w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Sigur-1573x2048.jpg 1573w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Sigur-scaled.jpg 1967w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />Magdalena (Maggie) Sigur began her current assignment as the HSI Attaché Ottawa in January 2022, where she has operational and programmatic oversight over all HSI Assistant Attaché offices, personnel, and activities in Canada. Prior to this assignment, she served as the unit chief for the HSI Victim Assistance Program and Management Oversight Unit.<br />
</aside>
<p> </p>
<aside class="pullout pullout--wide alignleft"><br />
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft wp-image-73907 size-thumbnail" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/McDonald-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/McDonald-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/McDonald-300x300.jpg 300w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/McDonald.jpg 400w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />Maria McDonald joined the Ontario Provincial Police in 2018; she serves as a deputy director and the Victim Support Strategy lead. A founding member of the Victims’ Rights Alliance (Ireland), she is also on the Victims Focus Group for Operation Kenova and an advisor to the EU Center of Expertise for Victims of Terrorism.<br />
</aside>
<p><strong>Notes:</strong></p>
<p><sup>1</sup>European Union (EU), Directive 2012/29, <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32012L0029">Establishing Minimum Standards on the Rights, Support and Protection of Victims of Crime, and Replacing Council Framework Decision 2001/220/JHA</a> (October 25, 2012), 2012 O.J. (L 315. 14.11.2012), 57–73.</p>
<p><sup>2</sup>EU, Directive 2011/36, <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32011L0036"><em>Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and Protecting Its Victims, and Replacing Council Framework Decision 2002/629/JHA</em></a> (April 5, 2011), 2011 O.J. (L 101, 15.4.2011), 1–11; EU, Directive 2011/92, <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32011L0093">Combating the Sexual Abuse and Sexual Exploitation of Children and Child Pornography, and Replacing Council Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA</a> (December 13, 2011), 2011 O.J. (L 335, 17.12.2011), 1–14; EU, Directive 2017/541 <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32017L0541">Combating Terrorism and Replacing Council Framework Decision 2002/475/JHA and Amending Council Decision 2005/671/JHA</a> (March 15, 2017), 2017 O.J. (L 88, 3.13.2107), 6–21; United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism, UN Counter-Terrorism Centre, <a href="https://www.un.org/victimsofterrorism/sites/www.un.org.victimsofterrorism/files/oct-uncct-handbook_of_good_practices_to_support_victim27s_associations_-web.pdf"><em>Handbook of Good Practices to Support Victims’ Associations in Africa and the Middle East</em></a> (United Nations, 2018).</p>
<p><sup>3</sup>INVICTM, <a href="https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=99289ecc354900b4JmltdHM9MTY3NDk1MDQwMCZpZ3VpZD0xYzI2MWMxOC1jMmIyLTY0NTUtMjRhNi0wZTYwYzMxODY1YzQmaW5zaWQ9NTE3MA&ptn=3&hsh=3&fclid=1c261c18-c2b2-6455-24a6-0e60c31865c4&psq=INVICTM+REPORT&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudW4ub3JnL3ZpY3RpbXNvZnRlcnJvcmlzbS9zaXRlcy93d3cudW4ub3JnLnZpY3RpbXNvZnRlcnJvcmlzbS9maWxlcy9pbnZpY3Rtc3ltcG9zaXVtcmVwb3J0MjAxOC5wZGY&ntb=1"><em>Supporting Victims of Terrorism: Report of the INVICTM Symposium in Stockholm</em></a>, 2018.</p>
<p><sup>4</sup>U.S. Department of Justice, “<a href="https://www.justice.gov/vtatf">U.S. Victims of Terrorism Abroad Task Force</a>”; EMDR Europe, “<a href="https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/policies/justice-and-fundamental-rights/criminal-justice/protecting-victims-rights/eu-centre-expertise-victims-terrorism_en">EU Centre of Expertise for Victims of Terrorism</a>.”</p>
<p><sup>5</sup>International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), <a href="https://www.theiacp.org/projects/enhancing-law-enforcement-response-to-victims-elerv">Enhancing Law Enforcement Response to Victims (ELERV) Strategy</a> (Alexandria, VA: IACP.)</p>
<p><sup>6</sup>Maria McDonald (Deputy Director, Victim Support Strategy Lead, Ontario Provincial Police), presentation to CACP National Working Group (Spring 2021).</p>
<p><sup>7</sup>Ontario Provincial Police, “<a href="https://www.opp.ca/index.php?lng=en&id=115&entryid=6183fcdbbf5125480a712a63">Victims/Survivors of Crime</a>.”</p>
<hr />
<p>Please cite as</p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;">Magdalena Sigur and Maria McDonald, “Access to Justice for Cross-Border Victims,” <em>Police Chief</em> 90, no. 6 (June 2023): 38–43.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The post <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/access-to-justice-for-cross-border-victims/">Access to Justice for Cross-Border Victims</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org">Police Chief Magazine</a>.</p>
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<title>Recognizing and Responding to Elder Abuse</title>
<link>https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/recognizing-and-responding-to-elder-abuse/</link>
<comments>https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/recognizing-and-responding-to-elder-abuse/#respond</comments>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Margaret White]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 01 Jun 2023 12:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Investigations]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Topics]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Victim Services]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[elder abuse]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[elder fraud]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/?p=73829</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<p>Millions of older people experience some type of abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation every year, with devastating consequences to their physical, social, financial, and psychological well-being. While the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigates and prosecutes a wide array of transnational and domestic fraud schemes that target older adults, state and local law enforcement are frequently the first responders to many forms of elder abuse. For this reason, the DOJ is dedicated to supporting and enhancing the ability of law enforcement and other elder justice professionals to effectively identify and respond to elder abuse, neglect, financial exploitation, and fraud.</p>
<h3>Understanding Elder Abuse</h3>
<p>Law enforcement is on the front lines of elder abuse. However, not all law enforcement officers may be familiar with the many forms of elder abuse. Some may not believe elder abuse is a problem in their community, which invokes the adage “If you don’t look, you won’t see it.” At least 10 percent of older adults (aged 60+) in the United States experience some form of elder abuse each year.<sup>1</sup> Older adults rely on law enforcement to be aware of the red flags and to respond quickly when their well-being is in jeopardy. Elder abuse has some specific elements that make it distinct from other forms of family violence.</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/recognizing-and-responding-to-elder-abuse/">Recognizing and Responding to Elder Abuse</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org">Police Chief Magazine</a>.</p>
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<p>Millions of older people experience some type of abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation every year, with devastating consequences to their physical, social, financial, and psychological well-being. While the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigates and prosecutes a wide array of transnational and domestic fraud schemes that target older adults, state and local law enforcement are frequently the first responders to many forms of elder abuse. For this reason, the DOJ is dedicated to supporting and enhancing the ability of law enforcement and other elder justice professionals to effectively identify and respond to elder abuse, neglect, financial exploitation, and fraud.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #b33b24;">UNDERSTANDING ELDER ABUSE</span></h3>
<p>Law enforcement is on the front lines of elder abuse. However, not all law enforcement officers may be familiar with the many forms of elder abuse. Some may not believe elder abuse is a problem in their community, which invokes the adage “If you don’t look, you won’t see it.” At least 10 percent of older adults (aged 60+) in the United States experience some form of elder abuse each year.<sup>1</sup> Older adults rely on law enforcement to be aware of the red flags and to respond quickly when their well-being is in jeopardy. Elder abuse has some specific elements that make it distinct from other forms of family violence.</p>
<p>Although state statutes vary in their definitions, elder abuse generally includes physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, as well as neglect and financial fraud and abuse (i.e., financial exploitation).<sup>2</sup> Oftentimes, the person causing the harm is a family member or someone close to the victim, but not aways. Sometimes, older adults may not recognize that the treatment they are receiving constitutes a crime. Further, there is often reluctance on the part of older adults to report abuse. Some are concerned about their loved one going to jail. Others may be concerned that no one will take care of them if their abuser is removed or that they may lose their independence by being placed in a nursing home. Some are simply overwhelmed and isolated. Not investigating a case merely because it involves a family member or because the victim is reluctant to participate is a missed opportunity that could have grave consequences.</p>
<p>When responding to an elder abuse call, law enforcement may be walking into a contentious situation with a history of dysfunction between the parties. Persons causing the harm may appear sympathetic or concerned, but closer examination may reveal their true motives. As noted, what looks like a family dispute may in fact be a crime. Officers should ask themselves, “If the behavior I’m observing was between two strangers, would it be criminal?” If the answer is yes, then perhaps what officers are observing is criminal. Even if no arrests are made, encourage officers to document the incident in case there are future calls.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #b33b24;">Recognizing Types of Elder Abuse</span></h3>
<h4><em><span style="color: #102c4e;">Physical, Psychological and Sexual Abuse</span></em></h4>
<p>Physical abuse is usually the most recognizable form of abuse to law enforcement, although intervening medical issues can mask its effect. Other forms of abuse perpetrated against older adults may be more challenging. A common form of elder abuse is psychological abuse, but it is difficult to observe and document. In sexual abuse cases, the physical evidence may not be readily apparent, but it is imperative that allegations are taken seriously—and warning signs are known and evaluated.<sup>3</sup> Obtain the specialized skills of a sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) where available. There are few SANEs trained in responding to sexual assault of older adults, but there are SANE protocols for those working with older adults. At the very least, officers can connect the older adult with a sexual assault victim advocate at their agency or in their community.</p>
<h4><span style="color: #102c4e;"><em>Neglect</em></span></h4>
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<p><span style="font-family: Webdings; color: #e6f2ff;">~</span> <span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>Neglect</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Debbie, a 53-year-old woman, moved in with her father, Dale, when he had a stroke five years ago, to provide care for him. Debbie generally takes her father to his doctor and physical therapy appointments, but recently, she has not even been doing that. The neighbors are worried because they haven’t seen Dale in months, and when they walk by it, the home smells even from the sidewalk. Neighbors called the police. When police did a wellness check, they found that Dale was laying on the couch in soiled undergarments. Closer inspection of his backside revealed two pressure ulcers. An ambulance was called.</span></td>
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<p>Although some studies find neglect is the most prevalent form of elder abuse, at least reported to Adult Protective Services (APS), it is often underrecognized by law enforcement.<sup>4</sup> While neglect is frequently perceived as less serious than abuse, the consequences can be severe and include painful pressure ulcers, diminished health, dehydration, and starvation. Most states have a criminal neglect statute, but even in those states without such statutes, law enforcement can pursue these insidious crimes. A formal caregiving arrangement is not required to pursue neglect; an informal agreement may be sufficient. While everyone may want to believe that family members will provide loving care for older adults, there are myriad reasons why they do not. Sometimes the selected caregiver is the least suitable to be providing assistance. Family members may nominate a person living with a mental illness or a substance abuse disorder since they are “home anyway,” but such persons may be unable to provide appropriate care. Other times, there is simply cruel and wanton disregard of the older adult. Historically, criminal neglect has been challenging to prosecute, but there are prosecutors across the United States advocating for and training prosecutors to pursue these heinous crimes (see the National Institute on the Prevention of Elder Abuse virtual training).<sup>5</sup></p>
<h4><span style="color: #102c4e;"><em>Financial Crimes</em></span></h4>
<p>Financial crimes against older adults are also a very common form of elder abuse. But both APS and law enforcement often find investigating these crimes challenging. They are not part of a typical caseload and may be unfamiliar to many first responders and detectives. Investigating financial exploitation may be further hindered by its complexity. There are many ways these crimes can be instigated, myriad ways someone can be financially victimized, and multiple types of perpetrators from family to strangers. Financial loss is devastating, but the long-term consequences associated with the financial loss compound the initial harm, up to and including hastening the death of the older adult. The financial crimes that cause the greatest consternation include three scenarios—those involving family members, those involving the appearance of consent, and those involving legal relationships.</p>
<p><strong>Family members.</strong> As discussed above, a kinship relationship between the victim and offender does not automatically render the situation civil. Such a relationship may complicate the investigation, but it does not negate the need for an investigation. Many states have criminal financial exploitation statutes that address this unique situation.</p>
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<p><strong><span style="font-family: Webdings; color: #e6f2ff;">~</span> <span style="color: #ffffff;"> Financial Exploitation</span></strong></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Richardt, a 48-year-old man, lived with his mother, Mrs. Butler, on and off in adulthood. Richardt would take cash from his mother without permission, use her credit cards without her permission, and often threaten her until she gave him money she had hidden. Richardt was addicted to substances, and Mrs. Butler did not want her son living on the street. Richardt’s brother called the police when he learned his mother had taken out a second mortgage and Richardt had taken that money, too.</span></td>
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<p><strong>Appearance of consent.</strong> Law enforcement and prosecutors sometimes say, “It’s not a crime to give your money away.” This is true—but there are exceptions to this rule. The key element in “give away” is consent, but consent must be voluntary to be valid. What appears voluntary can be undermined by several conditions: coercion, fraud, misrepresentation, undue influence, or diminished decision-making capacity. The presence of any of these conditions may not be readily apparent, but they are important to investigate. For example, an older adult who invested in a business and later discovered it was fraudulent, when notifying law enforcement, was told it was a civil issue (i.e., a bad business practice). It turned out fraud was involved, and, ultimately, the fraudster was convicted. A transaction that indicates that consent was given often stops an investigation in its tracks. However, it is important for law enforcement not to assume consent was provided but to dig a little deeper to confirm that one or more of the conditions that undermine consent are not present before closing the investigation. Please note that law enforcement investigators should not be assessing decision-making capacity themselves, but rather describing (not labeling) any concerns or observations in a report so that others can follow up and assess if necessary.</p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Webdings; color: #e6f2ff;">~</span> <span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>Financial Fraud</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;">Wendy Huang, a 69-year-old woman, lives alone in a two-bedroom apartment. One of her children visits her every other month. She met the love of her life, Rick, online about three months ago. They have tried to meet in person, but it hasn’t worked out yet. Three weeks ago, Wendy sent Rick $3,000 to “fix” the problem and allow Rick to visit Wendy. Last week, he needed another $2,000—that’s all it would take and then they could be together. Wendy’s daughter was visiting, noticed the missing funds, and contacted the police.</span></td>
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<p><strong>Legal relationships: guardianship, power of attorney.</strong> At times, when a suspect shows a power of attorney form or says they are a guardian of an individual, law enforcement considers the matter civil. However, the mere presence of a form “proving” a legal relationship between the victim and offender does not necessarily mean the situation is civil. Persons with a legal relationship to an older adult must act as a fiduciary, meaning they cannot spend the person’s money in any way they choose, but they must do so in a way that benefits the older adult or comports with their wishes. Breach of fiduciary duty may be a violation of the law.<sup>6</sup> Additionally, a person may claim he or she is a guardian or has a power of attorney when in fact the person does not (either because of confusion around these legal documents or bold-faced lies). For a guardian, officers can ask to see the “Letter of Guardianship” issued by a court, and for a power of attorney, officers can ask to see the original signed form.</p>
<h4><span style="color: #b33b24;">Abuse in Long-Term Care Settings</span></h4>
<p>Sadly, all forms of elder abuse may also occur in long-term care (LTC) settings (skilled nursing facilities and other forms of congregate living). In an LTC setting, the persons causing the harm are more likely to be staff, although service delivery personnel, visitors, and family members can also perpetrate harm. Some scholars also consider resident-on-resident abuse a form of elder abuse.<sup>7</sup> LTC settings are unique in that an entire set of federal laws and regulations specifically address abuse occurring in these facilities (in addition to any state legislation and regulations). The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requires that LTC facilities report abuse of LTC residents to law enforcement.<sup>8</sup> Medicaid Fraud Control Units (MFCUs), generally housed in the state’s attorney general’s office, also respond to abuse of LTC residents.<sup>9</sup> In many areas, MFCUs and law enforcement investigate these cases collaboratively. However, many law enforcement agencies are not large enough or their officers are insufficiently trained to respond to abuse of LTC residents.</p>
<p>Neglect is the most common form of elder abuse in LTC settings that will involve law enforcement. However, financial exploitation is perhaps the type of abuse that functions most distinctly in this context. Some common forms of financial exploitation in LTC settings include theft of possessions or cash, taking money from funds the nursing home holds for a resident, or the nonpayment of facility bills in which a responsible party (including a family member) fails to pay facility bills and keeps or spends the money for personal uses, at times resulting in eviction of the resident for nonpayment. These are all forms of financial exploitation that may require a law enforcement response.</p>
<h4><span style="color: #b33b24;">Avoid Victim Blaming</span></h4>
<p>It is often very easy to ask victims how they could have fallen for a scam or become the victim of financial exploitation. These are especially common questions posed to older adults, given misconceptions and biases about their mental capabilities. However, given the right circumstances, anyone can fall for a scam, and the focus should remain on the persons committing the crime.<sup>10</sup></p>
<h3><span style="color: #b33b24;"><strong>THE ROLE OF LAW ENFORCEMENT IN ELDER ABUSE</strong></span></h3>
<p>Most law enforcement agencies do not have specialized officers to respond to elder abuse. Although such units exist in some states (in Rhode Island, for example), each agency must designate an elderly affairs officer.<sup>11</sup> As depicted in Figure 1, officers throughout a department may encounter elder abuse, so it is important for all officers to be familiar with elder abuse.</p>
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<td style="width: 770px;"><span style="color: #102c4e;"><big><strong>Figure 1: </strong>Law Enforcement Divisions that Often Encounter Elder Abuse</big></span></td>
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<p>As first responders, law enforcement officers play a key role in identifying and responding to elder abuse. Officers may conduct wellness checks, make arrests, determine if a crime has been committed, file police reports, and enforce restraining orders. Charging elder abuse may be an option, but there are alternatives to elder abuse charges that may work just as well or better in a particular situation.</p>
<p>Each U.S. state has elder abuse mandatory reporting laws, and law enforcement personnel are typically included among those considered mandatory reporters. In most states, APS is the entity designated to receive initial reports, but people often call law enforcement. Ideally, law enforcement and APS are cross reporting and working collaboratively on these cases. In LTC facilities, law enforcement’s partner is the long-term care ombudsman.</p>
<p>Currently considered best practice, the work of law enforcement is exponentially enhanced when working collaboratively with other elder justice professionals, particularly as a member of an elder abuse multidisciplinary team, an elder justice coalition, a coordinated community response, an Elder Justice SARs Task Force, or other collaboratives.<sup>12</sup> Collaborations reduce duplication of effort, minimize turf battles, and benefit older persons, elder justice professionals, and the community. When officers know their fellow elder justice professionals, it increases the likelihood of timely referrals to APS or victim services, a vital function of law enforcement.</p>
<p>Finally, as alluded to, law enforcement may encounter older victims living with some form of dementia. Severity varies tremendously, but officers must be aware of this possibility when on a wellness check or responding to an elder abuse report or when they find someone wandering. When returning a person found wandering to his or her home, officers must be sure the responsible person at home is not an abusive person. Where appropriate, officers can consult their APS colleagues. The vast majority of older adults have no cognitive impairments, but for those who do, extra caution is warranted.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #b33b24;"><strong>THE DOJ’s FOUR-PRONGED RESPONSE</strong></span></h3>
<p>The DOJ has a multifaceted approach to combating elder abuse. These facets include (1) pursuing elder justice criminal and civil cases (often partnering with state and local law enforcement); (2) directly and indirectly providing victim services for older adults; (3) developing training and resources for a host of elder justice professionals, including law enforcement; and (4) promoting prevention through public outreach.</p>
<p><strong>Pursuing elder justice criminal and civil cases.</strong> Since 2018, each U.S. attorney’s office has a designated elder justice coordinator (EJC)—a civil or criminal assistant U.S. attorney—to aggressively pursue elder justice cases in their jurisdiction. EJCs recognize the importance of working with state and local law enforcement. EJCs and additional components throughout the DOJ have aggressively investigated numerous national and transnational elder fraud schemes (e.g., Jamaican lottery and technical support scams), nursing homes that provide Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries with grossly substandard nursing services, and a wide array of CARES Act and COVID-19 fraud schemes that affect older U.S. residents. From July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022, the DOJ pursued nearly 300 criminal and civil cases involving conduct that targeted or disproportionately affected older adults. Approximately 94 percent of the cases were criminal in nature and 40 percent involved international schemes. These cases named more than 600 defendants who collectively stole approximately $1.5 billion from over 2.6 million victims. The Department has launched or expanded several related initiatives, such as the Transnational Elder Fraud Task Force, the Money Mule Initiative, and Elder Justice SARs Task Forces, all of which are strengthened by collaboration with state and local law enforcement.<sup>13</sup></p>
<p><strong><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-73838" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Mao_Image-1-BW-300x95.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="95" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Mao_Image-1-BW-300x95.jpg 300w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Mao_Image-1-BW.jpg 669w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Providing victim support for older adults.</strong> The DOJ supports the National Elder Fraud Hotline, 833-FRAUD-11, with specially trained operators (case managers) to respond to questions and assist with reporting and referrals. Multiple components within the DOJ provide direct victim services to federal crime victims (e.g., the Executive Office for United States Attorneys’ Victim Assistance Program, the FBI’s Victim Services Division). Further, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center’s (IC3) Recovery Asset Team works with financial institutions to stop the transfer of victim’s funds involved in fraudulent schemes. The Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) provides funding to states to support victim services programming at the state and local level. OVC’s discretionary funding supports elder justice capacity building at the state and local level. Whether federal, state, or local, the DOJ provides victim recovery support to help older victims regain their sense of safety and well-being, which benefits police agencies and those in the community.</p>
<p><strong>Developing training and resources for elder justice professionals.</strong> Throughout the DOJ, components are providing training to elder justice professionals and developing resources to ensure a host of elder justice professionals are prepared to respond vigorously, compassionately, and appropriately to cases involving older adults. Developed specifically for law enforcement, the EAGLE is a web module designed to support law enforcement officers in identifying, intervening, and resolving cases of elder abuse.<sup>14</sup></p>
<aside class="pullout pullout--wide alignleft"><strong>EAGLE ONLINE TRAINING</strong></p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft wp-image-73840" src="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Mao_Image-2-larger-300x145.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="217" srcset="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Mao_Image-2-larger-300x145.jpg 300w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Mao_Image-2-larger-1024x494.jpg 1024w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Mao_Image-2-larger-768x371.jpg 768w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Mao_Image-2-larger-1536x741.jpg 1536w, https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/Mao_Image-2-larger.jpg 1890w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px" />Attesting to the value of the EAGLE Online Training, Sublette County Detective Travis Lanning recounts in a Dispatch article titled, “Exposing the Scammers: A Wyoming Sheriff’s Office Fights Financial Crimes Against Seniors,” how an older adult in his community experienced a financial scam. As these are complex cases, Detective Lanning recognized the need for training in financial scams targeting older adults, noting that, in small communities, law enforcement is often unable to attend in-person training. However, the EAGLE Online Training afforded an opportunity for even a small community like Sublette County to obtain training in recognizing and responding to financial crimes committed against older adults. Also as a result of the training and increased awareness among law enforcement, Sublette County identified the need to develop a public awareness campaign that has resulted in additional older community residents stepping forward to reveal their financial victimization, providing an opportunity to investigate and assist with recovery.</p>
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<aside class="pullout alignleft"><strong>Join DOJ for the National Convening on Promoting the Financial Safety of Older Americans</strong></p>
<p>The U.S. Department of Justice will be hosting an Elder Justice Summit in the fall of 2023 to focus on the role of local, state, and federal law enforcement to combat elder abuse and financial exploitation. The summit will highlight available resources, tools, and training, as well as best practices for collaboration. </aside>
<p><strong>Promoting prevention through public outreach.</strong> The DOJ stands at the ready when abuse occurs, but the best approach is prevention. In a variety of ways, components throughout the DOJ promote and engage in public outreach activities as well as develop resources for local public outreach events. The Office of Community Policing Services (COPS Office) funds the National Association of Triads, with communities across the United States engaging in crime prevention and public education for older adults.<sup>15</sup> You Are Not Alone (YANA) programs strive to increase the safety of older and vulnerable community residents through a volunteer police program.<sup>16</sup></p>
<p>In addition, the world commemorates World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) annually on June 15. Materials are available at the National Center on Elder Abuse WEAAD page to host your own WEAAD event. Through these varied and multipronged activities, the DOJ collectively takes a holistic approach to elder justice, both in its own activities and in support of elder justice professionals throughout the United States.<sup>17</sup></p>
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<p><span style="color: #ffffff;"><big><strong>Resources</strong></big></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>General</strong></span></p>
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<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;"><a style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.justice.gov/elderjustice/page/file/1392046/download">Law Enforcement Elder Justice Resource Guide</a></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #ffffff;"><a style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.justice.gov/elderjustice/elder-justice-flyers">DOJ Elder Justice Flyers</a></span></span></li>
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<p><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>Financial Crimes and Exploitation</strong></span></p>
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<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.justice.gov/file/1525271/download#Full%20Resource%20Guide">Elder Justice Decision-Making Capacity Resource Guide</a></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;"><a style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/whats-the-difference-between-a-durable-and-a-regular-power-of-attorney?msockid=22a8359ce10762cb0bbc216be08c634e">Durable Power of Attorney Fact Sheets: Criminal Justice Professionals</a></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;"><a style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.finra.org/sites/default/files/2022-07/Blame-and-Shame-in-the-Context-of-Financial-Fraud.pdf">Blame and Shame in the Context of Financial Fraud</a></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;"><a style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.nw3c.org/UI/CourseDetails.html?courseId=380">Victim-Centered Solutions to Elder Exploitation (training)</a></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;"><a style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.nw3c.org/UI/CourseDetails.html?courseId=714">Responding to Transnational Elder Fraud: A Victim-Centered Approach for Law Enforcement (training)</a></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;"><a style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.justice.gov/elderjustice/video/tackling-transnational-robocall-scams-importance-state-and-federal-partnerships">Tackling Transnational Robocall Scams: The Importance of State and Federal Partnerships (webinar)</a></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;"><a style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;" href="https://ovc.ojp.gov/program/stop-elder-fraud/providing-help-restoring-hope">National Elder Fraud Hotline</a>: 833-FRAUD-11</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;"><a style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.nw3c.org/UI/CourseDetails.html?courseId=2">Financial Crimes Against Seniors (training)</a></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;"><a style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.theiacp.org/elder-abuse">Senior Abuse Financial Tracking and Accounting Tool – SAFTA</a></span></span></span></li>
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<p><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>Neglect and Abuse</strong></span></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square; font-weight: bold; color: #ffffff;">
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;"><a style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;" href="https://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/medicaid-fraud-control-units-mfcu/policy_transmittals/PolicyTransmittal2021-1FAQs-on-Expanded-Patient-Abuse-or-Neglect-Authority-8-30-2021.pdf">Expanded Authority for Cases of Patient Abuse or Neglect in Noninstitutional Settings: Frequently Asked Questions</a></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;"><a style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;" href="https://eagle.usc.edu/">Elder Abuse Guide for Law Enforcement – EAGLE</a></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;"><a style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.nw3c.org/UI/CourseDetails.html?courseId=488">The Elder Abuse Guide for Law Enforcement (training)</a></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;"><a style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.justice.gov/file/1401716/download">Adult Protective Services: Your Partner in Combatting Elder Abuse</a></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;"><a style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.justice.gov/file/1403096/download">Law Enforcement: Building Stronger Cases with Elder Abuse Multidisciplinary Teams</a></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;"><a style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.theiacp.org/elder-abuse">Identifying and Responding to Elder Abuse: An Officer’s Role</a> (roll call videos)</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;"><a style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;" href="http://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/ncall/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/01113239/SelfAssessmentLawEnforcement.pdf">Response to Elder Abuse: A Self-Assessment Workbook for Law Enforcement</a></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;"><a style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;" href="https://bja.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh186/files/Publications/ABA-ElderAbuseGuide.pdf">Legal Issues Related to Elder Abuse: A Pocket Guide for Law Enforcement</a></span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>Cognitive Vulnerabilities</strong></span></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square; font-weight: bold; color: #ffffff;">
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;"><a style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/law_aging/2022-dementia-crim-just-rpt.pdf">Persons Living with Dementia in the Criminal Legal System</a></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;"><a style="color: #ffffff; text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.theiacp.org/projects/alzheimers-initiatives">Alzheimer’s Initiative</a></span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<p> </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p> </p>
<h3><span style="color: #b33b24;"><strong>BE PREPARED!</strong></span></h3>
<table class=" alignright" style="width: 45%; background-color: #102c4e;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="623"><strong><span style="color: #ffffff;">IACP RESOURCES</span></strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square; font-weight: bold; color: #ffffff;">
<li><a href="https://www.theiacp.org/elder-abuse"><span style="color: #ffffff;">Identifying and Responding to Elder Abuse: An Officer’s Role</span></a></li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://www.theiacp.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong>theIACP.org</strong></span></a></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square; font-weight: bold; color: #ffffff;">
<li><a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/iacp-work-know-the-signs/"><span style="color: #ffffff;">IACP@Work: Know the Signs: Elder Abuse</span></a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/brief-identifying-responding-elder-abuse/"><span style="color: #ffffff;">The Brief: Identifying and Responding to Elder Abuse: An Officer’s Role</span></a></li>
</ul>
<p> </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>There are many things agencies can do to ensure that their officers are prepared to respond to elder abuse. Agencies can complete a self-assessment workbook for law enforcement on its readiness to respond to elder abuse, install the EAGLE directly into squad cars, and facilitate training so your officers can identify and respond appropriately.<sup>18</sup> There are many options available:</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>Show roll call videos at roll call.</li>
<li>Encourage officers to take the one-hour EAGLE online training.</li>
<li>Support officers viewing the Training Resource for Law Enforcement and Other Investigators (23 short modules) available from the National Clearinghouse on Abuse in Later Life.</li>
<li>Apply for EAGLE in-person or virtual training.</li>
</ul>
<p>All law enforcement and justice professionals have a role to play in combating elder abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation. The DOJ is committed to supporting the efforts of state and local law enforcement. Only by working together can the safety, security, and dignity of older adults be ensured. <span style="font-family: Webdings;"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.0.3/72x72/1f6e1.png" alt="🛡" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></span></p>
<p> </p>
<aside class="pullout pullout--wide alignleft"></p>
<p>Andy Mao is the Department of Justice’s Elder Justice Initiative coordinator, as well as a deputy director of the Civil Fraud Section. As a prosecutor, he investigated and litigated fraud cases involving pharmaceutical manufacturers and health care providers; he now helps to coordinate the DOJ’s efforts to combat elder abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation.</p>
<p></aside>
<p><strong>Notes:</strong></p>
<p><sup>1</sup>National Council on Aging, “<a href="https://www.ncoa.org/article/get-the-facts-on-elder-abuse">Get the Facts on Elder Abuse</a>,” February 23, 2021.</p>
<p><sup>2</sup>The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), “<a href="https://www.justice.gov/elderjustice/elder-justice-statutes-0">State Elder Abuse Statutes</a>.”</p>
<p><sup>3</sup>Elder Abuse Guide for Law Enforcement (EAGLE), “<a href="https://eagle.usc.edu/types-of-abuse/sexual/#1499986431993-deeef387-150c">Sexual Elder Abuse</a>.”</p>
<p><sup>4</sup>Pamela B. Teaster et al., <a href="https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/20110807_surveyStateAPS.pdf"><em>The 2004 Survey of State Adult Protective Services: Abuse of Adults 60 Years of Age and Older National Center on Elder Abuse</em></a> (Washington, DC: National Center on Elder Abuse, 2006).</p>
<p><sup>5</sup>National Clearinghouse on Abuse in Later Life (NCALL), “<a href="https://www.ncall.us/vpt/">NCALL 2022 Virtual Training Series for Prosecutors</a>,” July 21, 2022.</p>
<p><sup>6</sup>Lori A. Stiegel, <a href="https://bja.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh186/files/Publications/ABA-ElderAbuseGuide.pdf"><em>Legal Issues Related to Elder Abuse: A Pocket Guide for Law Enforcement</em></a> (Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Assistance, 2014).</p>
<p><sup>7</sup>Mark S. Lachs et al., “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6366619/">The Prevalence of Resident-to-Resident Elder Mistreatment in Nursing Homes</a>,” <em>Annals of Internal Medicine</em> 165, no. 4 (August 2016): 229–236.</p>
<p><sup>8</sup>Director of Survey and Certification Group to State Survey Agency Directors, “<a href="https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Provider-Enrollment-and-Certification/SurveyCertificationGenInfo/downloads/scletter11_30.pdf">Reporting Reasonable Suspicion of a Crime in a Long-Term Care Facility (LTC): Section 1150B of the Social Security Act</a>,” June 17, 2011, revised January 20, 2012.</p>
<p><sup>9</sup>National Association of Attorneys General, “<a href="https://www.naag.org/about-naag/namfcu/">National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units</a>”; See also Suzanne Murrin, Deputy Inspector General for Evaluation and Inspections to All Medicaid Fraud Control Unit Directors, “<a href="https://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/medicaid-fraud-control-units-mfcu/policy_transmittals/PolicyTransmittal2021-1FAQs-on-Expanded-Patient-Abuse-or-Neglect-Authority-8-30-2021.pdf">State Fraud Policy Transmittal 2021-1, Expanded Authority for Cases of Patient Abuse or Neglect in Noninstitutional Settings: Frequently Asked Questions</a>,” August 30, 2021.</p>
<p><sup>10</sup><a href="https://www.finra.org/sites/default/files/2022-07/Blame-and-Shame-in-the-Context-of-Financial-Fraud.pdf"><em>Blame and Shame in the Context of Financial Fraud</em></a> (FINRA Investor Education Foundation, 2022).</p>
<p><sup>11</sup>City of Warwick Police Department, “<a href="https://www.warwickpd.org/index.php/police-divisions/community-services/elderly-affairs">Elderly Affairs</a>.”</p>
<p><sup>12</sup>DOJ, <a href="https://www.justice.gov/file/1403096/download"><em>Law Enforcement: Building Stronger Cases with Elder Abuse Multidisciplinary Teams</em></a>.</p>
<p><sup>13</sup>DOJ, “<a href="https://www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch/transnational-elder-fraud-strike-force">Transnational Elder Fraud Strike Force</a>”; DOJ, “<a href="https://www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch/money-mule-initiative">Money Mule Initiative</a>.”</p>
<p><sup>14</sup><a href="https://eagle.usc.edu/">EAGLE website</a>.</p>
<p><sup>15</sup>National Sheriff’s Association, “<a href="https://www.sheriffs.org/programs/national-triad">National Association of Triads</a>.” <a href="https://www.sheriffs.org/programs/national-triad"> </a></p>
<p><sup>16</sup>COPS Office, “<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/you-are-not-alone-law-enforcement-approach-to-monitoring/id1523576720?i=1000502375495">You Are Not Alone: A Law Enforcement Approach to Monitoring the Needs of Vulnerable Citizens</a>,” <em>The Beat: A COPS Office Podcast</em>, 2022.</p>
<p><sup>17</sup>National Center on Elder Abuse, “World Elder Abuse Awareness Day.”</p>
<p><sup>18</sup>Jane M. Sadusky, <a href="http://s3-us-east-2.amazonaws.com/ncall/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/01113239/SelfAssessmentLawEnforcement.pdf"><em>Response to Elder Abuse: A Self-Assessment Workbook for Law Enforcement</em></a> (Madison, WI: NCALL, 2010).</p>
<hr />
<p>Please cite as</p>
<p style="padding-left: 40px;">Andy Mao, “Recognizing and Responding to Elder Abuse: The U.S. Department of Justice’s Support for State and Local Law Enforcement,” <em>Police Chief</em> 90, no. 6 (June 2023): 30–37.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The post <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/recognizing-and-responding-to-elder-abuse/">Recognizing and Responding to Elder Abuse</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org">Police Chief Magazine</a>.</p>
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