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Introduction
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Austin Police Department’s Victim Services Division is among a relatively
small number of victim assistance divisions that work within law enforcement
agencies. Being part of a law enforcement agency allows Division counselors
to quickly respond to victims’ needs, meet officers at a crime scene,
and provide victims with a mix of immediate crisis counseling and practical
advice. Until recently, victim services divisions within law enforcement
agencies were relatively rare. Most victim services programs were located
at nonprofit agencies or within prosecutors’ offices, although only
21 percent of major crimes get to the prosecutor’s office. This means
that about 80 percent of crime victims may not have victim assistance
available to them unless a unit exists within a police department, according
to Chief Stan Knee of the Austin Police Department. “Our Victim Services
people arrive minutes after the officer gets there, as the paramedic is
wiping the blood off the forehead of a badly battered spouse,” Chief
Knee said. “They get a better perspective of the victim than from
just reading a police report.” The program initiates crisis counseling
during or shortly after a crime has occurred, rather than weeks or months
later. The Victim Services Division provides crisis and trauma counseling
to victims, families, witnesses, and others, and assistance to patrol
officers and investigators on cases.
Establishing a victim services program within
a law enforcement agency makes sense for several reasons, advocates say.
If victims receive support from victim services counselors, they may be
more likely to report a crime or cooperate in an investigation. That support
is an added tool for law enforcement agencies to increase their conviction
rates. Victim services work complements community policing, which emphasizes
establishing relationships with members of a neighborhood. Having a victim
services counselor on the scene can free up officer time; the counselor
can talk with a victim while the officer goes back into service. Also,
the counselor can act as a liaison for a child if a parent is being arrested
and officers need to move to the next call. A law enforcement agency is
also a natural entry point for victims to see advocates/counselors after
they have been victimized.
The number of programs located in police
and sheriff’s departments is a small but growing part of victim services
assistance in the United States. In 1999, Victims of Crime Act (VOCA)
programs awarded victim assistance grants to only 209 law enforcement
agencies out of 18,000 nationwide. In comparison, 428 prosecutors’
offices received VOCA victim assistance grants in 1998 out of 2,500 nationwide.
Still, the number of law enforcement agencies receiving VOCA grants has
increased from 113 in 1997.
Establishing Victim Services
Within a Law Enforcement Agency: The Austin Experience |
March 2001
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