Anchorage Daily News

When the police pulled Dave over for speeding, Lynette sat quietly in the front seat, staring straight ahead and praying hard (names changed). The officer asked for Dave's license, and per standard operating procedures, ran a check through the Alaska Public Safety Information Network, or APSIN. When he came back he asked Lynette to step out of the car and provide identification. Upon reading her name, the officer arrested Dave for violating a "No Contact" order resulting from a previous domestic violence arrest. He was not allowed to be within 500 yards of Lynette or her residence.

Lynette was profoundly grateful; Dave had showed up earlier at the house threatening to harm her children if she didn't come with him. She believed police intervention saved her life.

Until two years ago Lynette's rescue would not have occurred because the police officer would have had no way of knowing about the no-contact order (unless he was involved in the original arrest).

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Domestic violence (DV) is a significant problem in Anchorage. The Anchorage Police Department responds to more than 300 calls per month. And sadly, in our city 38 percent of misdemeanor domestic violence victims are children. In response, Anchorage has developed an innovative and successful program to help address this problem. The Anchorage Domestic Violence Prevention Project was initiated in 2006 by the Municipality of Anchorage Department of Health and Human Services in partnership with APD, Department of Law, Information & Technology Department, State Department of Public Safety, and Abused Women's Aid In Crisis Inc. (AWAIC), the local women's shelter. This project has two objectives: to hold offenders more accountable, and to increase victim safety.

Two recent articles in the Anchorage Daily News (by James Halpin; July 20) described police officers making early-morning compliance checks on domestic violence defendants with conditions of release, and services for victims provided by AWAIC, both part of the prevention project. The project also enables law enforcement, prosecutors and courts to share information about defendants such as prior arrests, convictions, protection orders and compliance with sanctions. Clerks attend all bail hearings, enter conditions of release into a database and flag DV defendants in APSIN. When a flagged suspect is encountered, police dispatchers look up current conditions of release for that defendant.

This information-sharing component of the project is what enabled the police to arrest Dave for violating his bail conditions, perhaps saving Lynette's life.

The prevention project is a pilot program funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women. Prior to its inception, defendants had little reason to comply with conditions of release, because there were no consequences for violations. Nobody was checking. Since two police officers began conducting routine compliance checks, defendants have increasingly observed bail conditions, thereby increasing victim safety.

Current jurisdiction for this project is the Municipality of Anchorage so the program tracks only those misdemeanor domestic violence defendants who are prosecuted by the municipality. Felony charges, by nature more serious crimes, are tried by the state. At present municipal and state court databases operate independently. More significant, felony defendants, arguably more dangerous, are not monitored or held accountable to the same degree as misdemeanor defendants.

That is about to change. Anchorage's Department of Health and Human Services recently received $750,000 from the Office on Violence Against Women to expand the Anchorage Domestic Violence Prevention Project. The next phase will support collaboration with the Multi-Agency Justice Integration Consortium to expand the project's successful data management information system statewide, providing current conditions of release, judgments and protective orders for defendants in all domestic violence cases.

Alaskans are all too familiar with domestic violence. Almost 75 percent of our population has experienced or knows someone who has experienced domestic violence or sexual assault. Almost 90 percent of Alaskans support the idea of increased funding for victim services and perpetrator consequences. Working together we can continue to reduce violence in our communities, protect the Lynettes we know and love, and improve life for all of us.

Diane Ingle is director of the Department of Health and Human Services in Anchorage.

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