DEBRA McCALL REED, DIRECTOR OF VICTIM SERVICES, DELAWARE STATE POLICE DEPARTMENT, DOVER, DELAWARE: I've been here for 30 years working for the state. Police officers are your first responders most of the time, and so the idea was, if we can have a victim advocate linked up with the police department, we can get services to victims quicker. That collaboration, that victim services working side-by-side with law enforcement has really proven to be beneficial in the state of Delaware. The advocate can focus on the victim. It frees the investigator up to do what they need to do, knowing that the victim is being taken care of by the advocate.
If you start from where the investigation begins and all the way through prosecution, that's a scary process and sometimes it's a long, drawn-out process. Yeah, because I would like to have an advocate talk with her. We want to help them to reestablish control over their lives, because most of the time what occurred was totally out of their control. And so we want to provide them with resources, we want to provide them with information, but then support whatever choice it is that they make for themselves.
NANCY WILL: This job is always changing and it's about meeting needs of people in crisis.
DEBRA McCALL REED: I oversee a unit of outstanding advocates who really give of themselves day-in and day-out.
NANCY WILL: You want a supervisor who cares about you as a person. On some of the more difficult cases that we work, especially death cases or cases involving children, uh, when we are finished, she's always said to us, "You need to call me. I want to hear from you." When you have an opportunity to work with someone who's done this for many, many years and knows that this is an emotionally difficult kind of a job, that's a rewarding experience.
DEBRA McCALL REED: Somebody needs to help people that are going through these incidents, and it's—you know, there are a lot of us out there that are—that are doing that. And knowing that we are making a difference helps you to go back and do it again the next day.
