Domestic Violence Projects

The Rural Crime and Justice Center has formed a partnership with the North Dakota Council on Abused Women’s Services (NDCAWS) with the purpose of charting the nature of intimate partner violence in the state of North Dakota. The goal of this partnership is to assist in the development of a statewide data collection and analysis system. For further information on projects that RCJC assisted NDCAWS with from 2003-2004, which were funded under a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Violence Against Women Planning and Implementation Grant, click the following link: profile NDCAWS July 04

Due to the positive collaborative effort from the first projects, RCJC and NDCAWS partnered once again to begin addressing another area of concern that impacts North Dakota's ability to chart the nature of intimate partner violence, a.k.a. the criminal justice/law enforcement response.

Policies, procedures and protocols need to be in place to ensure the safety of each and to decrease the risk of liability for the law enforcement agency.  Before 2003, there had not been a systematic review of local law enforcement policies.  In fact, even though state law requires every law enforcement agency to have a policy, no assessment on how many agencies actually comply has ever been made. After receiving the training and technical assistance from the IACP on policy review and development, the RCJC contacted the remaining law enforcement agencies to obtain a copy of their domestic violence policy to complete the assessment on the current status of policy in North Dakota.  Preliminary results of the assessment have revealed that of the 120 law enforcement agencies contacted, 108 (90%) responded.  Of those law enforcement agencies that responded, only 33% have a current domestic violence policy.  We also know from statistics gathered for the North Dakota Department of Health by NDCAWS that arrests are made on violations of protection orders in only a little over 60% of the cases.  We need to assure that our law enforcement officers not only know the law but have sound policy back-up for how they enforce those laws. STOP Grant final report year Jan 04

In response to the dire need for law enforcement domestic violence policy, the most current project with NDCAWS was initiated. This initiative is funded by the 2004 Department of Justice Grants to Encourage Arrest Policies and Enforcement of Protection Orders Program. The NDCAWS will collaborate with the RCJC, the University of North Dakota’s Tribal Judicial Institute (TJI), and a multidisciplinary advisory committee to:

• develop a model law enforcement domestic violence policy for North Dakota
• utilize the assistance of RCJC and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) to develop a train-the-trainer curriculum on local policy development 
• create a pool of trained officers available to serve as technical assistance and training resources for local law enforcement agencies and community response teams

The RCJC is assisting in the development of a North Dakota domestic violence train-the-trainer curriculum on local policy development. Specifically, we are:

• assisting with the identification of law enforcement officers who will attend the training and serve as trainers and resources for local law enforcement agencies and for building and enhancing the response of Coordinated Community Response (CCRs) to domestic violence in communities throughout North Dakota by assisting CCRs with interagency policy development
• assisting with the identification of current train-the-trainer curricula available through Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) that could be adapted to meet the needs of law enforcement in North Dakota in implementing the model policy developed in Year 1
• assisting with the presentation of the available train-the-trainer curricula to the advisory committee and facilitate a discussion of which curriculum is most workable within the context of North Dakota law enforcement needs and the model policy
• assisting with the identification of the train-the-trainer curriculum that will be adapted to implement North Dakota’s law enforcement model policy and to build or enhance CCR policy efforts in communities throughout the state
• assisting with the identification of opportunities to provide training on the domestic violence model policy and CCR response
• assisting with two regional trainings for the identified officers and other partners using the train-the-trainer curriculum that was adapted to implement North Dakota’s model law enforcement domestic violence policy and to enhance CCR policy efforts statewide - the associate will facilitate provision of the trainings
• assisting with the reviewal and evaluation of the regional trainings based upon the pre- and post test results
• assisting with the development of an action plan to follow-up and evaluate train-the-trainer curriculum and adoption/implementation of model policies statewide

The following link provides information on two additional joint projects between RCJC and NDCAWS: stateplanindex

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