Lauderhill Police Department Comprehensive Domestic Violence Approach

The City of Lauderhill, with a population of 73,633 and a high minority rate of 80.5% Black or African American and 36.8% foreign-born, has experienced a high crime rate of 8.56 per 1,000 residents. The City of Lauderhill had the highest number of Domestic Violence (DV) incidents in Broward County, with an increase of almost 250% in cases of DV since 2020. Moreover, Lauderhill has a very high poverty rate of 19.3% according the U.S. Census Bureau. Low socio-economic conditions and lack of opportunities for gainful employment lead to a vicious cycle of high poverty rates.  Poverty forces that demographic to live in poor neighborhoods with higher criminal activity and contributes to crime, stress and conflict. This increases the possibility of violent encounters in relationships, and risk for intimate violence, often involving children.

The primary goal of the Lauderhill Police Department's comprehensive DV initiative will be to increase its capacity to raise DV awareness, prevent recurrence, investigate, and prosecute DV cases and provide justice to victims and survivors. In order to achieve this goal, a DV response unit will be created and funding is requested to provide and augment specific resources.  Evidence Management software, and License Plate Readers (LPR) for trailers and patrol vehicles, and fixed automated ones will be purchased to assist officers in the crime scene investigation of DV incidents to track perpetrators who flee the incidents, often with children.  A crime analyst and a victim advocate will be hired and trained to work with the DV response unit. Training will be provided agency wide to increase awareness and effectiveness of victim advocates and officers to respond to DV incidents, and provide information to victims. Two community events will address DV intervention. The number of incidents data will be measured by the crime analyst who will map the high incidence areas to measure the project's success in achieving the stated goal. 

The Lauderhill Police department will also be implementing several strategies that include community outreach, working in partnership with community agencies such as Women in distress, other law enforcement agencies, and the Broward State Attorney's Office. Use of technology and data analytics will monitor program implementation and collect information to ensure progress. The review, prosecution, and resolution of homicide cold cases will serve to restore our residents' trust in our law enforcement and judicial systems. It will help to reduce the cycle of violence affecting the Lauderhill community.