SOUTH BEND, Ind.-- October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and the YWCA of North Central Indiana honored local law enforcement for their work in helping survivors on Thursday morning.
Amy Hill is the President & CEO of YWCA North Central Indiana.
“Here at the YWCA, we know that addressing domestic violence is not something that we can do alone. It requires strong partnerships between advocates, law enforcement and community members. One of the ways we do that is through our DA-LE program, 'Danger Assessment Law Enforcement',” said Hill. “It's an innovative approach that ensures when officers are responding to 911, domestic violence calls, survivors are connected immediately to trained YWCA advocates. It's a model that's been saving lives for many years and would not be possible without the commitment of our local police officers.”
Law enforcement from the South Bend Police Department, Mishawaka PD, and the St Joseph County police department were there. Seven officers were recognized from those agencies.
South Bend Police Chief Scott Ruszkowski explained that today’s event recognizes officers who have performed the most domestic violence assessments.
“This is not celebratory. I know it kind of seems that way, with the applause, but we don't want to have to do— nobody should be setting a record of how many we do. The record should be zero. That's what all of our goals are,” said Ruszkowski.
Officers respond to a domestic violence call, secure the scene, and then use something called the DA-LE screening tool to identify the level of danger a victim may be facing and if the victim is at risk of being hurt or killed.
DA-LE stands for ‘Danger Assessment for Law Enforcement.’
There are several questions on the questionnaire, and based on those answers, officers will connect survivors with the YWCA and the services they may need.
Ruszkowski says they also have high-risk assessments on top of that.
He says that over ten years ago, they had something called a ‘lethality assessment,’ which looked at who was most vulnerable and in need of services. Then that assessment became the DA-LE that they have today.
“We had had a lethality assessment that we looked at, you know, weighing, weighing who is probably going to be the most vulnerable. That also established a high-risk team, including judges, prosecutors, and others from the community, who would all get together and look at who is in the most dire need of services,” said Ruszkowski.
He says throughout the state and even nationally, many use the same or a similar model of the customized assessment that is used in our area now.
“So there was actually just three more questions, but the training that the officers are involved in, the training and expertise that our detectives have, really, really expanded to look just further than simple law enforcement finding the bad guy, putting handcuffs on him, and that being the end of it. And that's what a lot of people think that police only do, and that is not at all —that is part of it. But survivor services is equally as important as putting handcuffs on the bad people that are committing these offenses,” said Ruszkowski.
Ruszkowski says that YWCA is really the hub of resources for this program, and it goes beyond them and the police, getting victims help if needed from other community resources—connecting them with healthcare providers, for example.
Tiffany Gilliam is the Director of Domestic Violence Services at the YWCA of North Central Indiana.
She says the DA-LE is an 11-question questionnaire developed with the help of researchers from Johns Hopkins Nursing School and the University of Arizona. She says the questions are evidence-based and let them know if there is a risk for lethality.
“Once a victim has answered ‘yes’ to seven questions, that lets us know that there is a high risk for lethality in that relationship. We appreciate very much the officers who also take the extra measure to mark, ‘please look at this for further review’. Let's say a victim answers maybe ‘yes’ to only three of those questions, but the officer notices during their narration that there are other elements present of danger in that relationship when that officer marks, ‘look at this for further review’. We are able to do that here at the YWCA, and we can reach out to them, even though that victim may not fully see the danger that they are in,” said Gilliam.
If you are in crisis, there are resources for you up on the screen right now. You can call the 24-hour crisis line at 866-YES-YWCA or visit the YWCA North Central Indiana website.