Team tries to tackle domestic violence
A program designed to provide resources and a different type of supervision to misdemeanor domestic violence offenders in Franklin County is restarting field work after being paused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The High Risk Domestic Violence Team is comprised of a Columbus police officer and a Franklin County Municipal Court probation officer. Two days a week, the team — funded by the federal Violence Against Women Act — goes to the homes of domestic violence offenders who are considered at high risk of reoffending.
Grant funding is secured through 2020, but the team hopes the city will consider funding a full-time program locally.
The program started about two years ago after Columbus police Officer Anthony Roberts went to a conference and heard about such programs in other cities and states.
“When I came back, I was on fire” to get a similar program in Columbus, said Roberts, a 23-year veteran of the force and a former domestic violence detective.
The municipal court probation department also was looking for ways to better supervise domestic violence offenders while offering assistance to victims, who are often left without resources or contacts after a court case is finished.
“Domestic violence is unique in that there are victims involved by definition and often children involved and it affects the whole family,” said Ben Nicholas, who has spent seven of his nine years as a probation officer working on domestic violence cases. “We want the community to be safe, the officers to be safe and the kids in good environments.”
Nicholas and Roberts, or others among the approximately half-dozen members that rotate onto the team, meet each week to develop a game plan and decide who they want to visit. Nicholas said if a victim has called the probation office to report that an offender is violating a judge’s order to stay away or has had contact with police, that offender is more likely to be visited.
“We want to get to a problem before it becomes a bigger problem,” Nicholas said.
Roberts said when the program started, offenders were not excited to see a probation officer and a uniformed police officer at their door unexpectedly. But victims, who often are still living with offenders, were happy to know they had someone looking out for them.
“A lot of times we can still see in the victim’s eyes that they’re still fearful, intimidated, emotionally abused, isolated from their family. (The offenders) are still using the children to control them,” Roberts said. “The goal of the program wasn’t so much to arrest or enforce on the abuser but to allow the victim to know they aren’t alone just because the case was over and the abuser was home.”
The team has made contact with more than 230 domestic violence offenders and victims since the program started in August 2018.
Nicholas said team members have been able to get victims into shelters and provide them with cellphones while helping offenders get counseling and maintain employment.
“Once you have that rapport and you can convince someone you’re on their side and really want them to do well, not just for themselves but for their victim and children, you really start to see that pay off,” Nicholas said.
“Sometimes we do have to remove them and take them to jail, but I feel like we’ve had good results in keeping people out of jail and keeping them in the programs to get education and keeping them employed.“
Both Roberts and Nicholas hope the program will be a fully funded, permanent unit within their departments that will outlast their careers.
“If you look at what violence a child sees, it has such a devastating and negative effect on that child going to school and developing,” Roberts said. “If we are able to stop domestic violence, we’re able to save lives and build stronger communities with stronger individuals.”
Nicholas is set to begin a job as a federal probation officer in the coming weeks. Candidates to replace him are being vetted within the municipal probation department.
He said programs like the High Risk Domestic Violence Team can make a real difference during the current tension between the community and law enforcement.
“We need to have a relationship with the community,” Nicholas said. “That’s the only way things get better.” bbruner@dispatch.com @bethany_bruner