Hochul announces guidelines for police responding to domestic violence calls
ALBANY — Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday released guidelines for police responding to domestic violence calls and announced funding to expand the use of the state's Red Flag Law.
The new state guidelines are voluntary and may be adopted by police agencies. The model policies will become part of training programs for police.
The measure comes with $1 million more in state funds to expand use of the Red Flag Law. The law provides for extreme risk protection orders that can be used to take firearms from people suspected of domestic abuse and who pose a further danger.
The effort will assist community organizations helping survivors of domestic abuse file for the extreme risk protection orders.
More than 5,500 of the orders have been issued in New York State since 2019.
The model policy says law enforcement responding to a domestic violence call should:
- Ask the survivor about the suspect’s access to firearms or threats to harm themselves or others and any fits of jealousy or violence.
- Provide the survivor with detailed information to get safe and to get help from advocates who can be called to the scene.
- Obtain evidence from all sources, not just the survivor, including the suspect’s phone records, video, license plates numbers and contact prosecutors before arraignment if the suspect has been charged in previous violent incidents.
- Complete a Domestic Incident Report whether or not an arrest is made. This is an attempt to create a record when a victim refuses to cooperate out of fear of retribution.
- Advise survivors of services to secure orders of protection and safe housing.
- Turn off the police body camera if requested by a survivor who is reluctant to cooperate with police and fears retaliation from the suspect. The request must be documented.
The goal of the policy is for police to better understand and respond to trauma and coercive control that may make survivors hesitant to describe the incident out of fear of further abuse.
Michael Gormley has worked for Newsday since 2013, covering state government, politics and issues. He has covered Albany since 2001.
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