Sometimes, helping is as simple as just being there

After recognizing a serious need for intervention into Domestic Violence within the community, the Selma, California, Police Department set out to initiate a program to address the problems faced by victims of violent crimes. With no comprehensive, multi-agency response to domestic violence in the area, a Domestic Violence Response Team (DVRT) was formed. The objective of this program is to provide 24-hour crisis intervention and follow-up services to ensure that support is provided to victims of domestic violence and their children, in the hopes of interrupting the cycle of violence.

What began as a fledgling effort in August 1998 by Selma Police Officer Terry Reid and Community Service Officer Ruth Belmonte has grown over the past year to include six trained and certified community volunteers who spend countless hours helping others. The program has also become a collaboration between the Selma Police Department and the Marjoree Mason Center in Fresno.

Volunteers for Selma’s program were initially recruited through the police department’s existing Care for Kids program volunteers. The Care for Kids program has on-call volunteers to assist officers who encounter children who need temporary care while officers wait or for Child Protective Services or for the parents child victims. Currently, all but one of the DVRT members are also Care for Kids volunteers.

Potential volunteers are subject to standard police volunteer background checks and fingerprinting. The volunteers undergo at least forty hours of intensive training provided by staff at the Marjoree Mason Center and the Selma Police Department. A period of "ride alongs" with DVRT trainers completes the training.

With the purpose of "being there" for victims of domestic violence, the six volunteers are on-call and summoned by officers to follow-up with victims at a "safe site," which could be a police station, hospital or clinic. The volunteers talk to victims about the cycle of violence and explain their options. If needed, the volunteers also transport the victims to a shelter and provide escort and support when the victims appear in court. Currently, the six DVRT volunteers respond to five to eight calls per month.

The program also utilizes the services of an outreach worker from the Fresno Marjoree Mason Center who comes to Selma each Thursday to provide additional support and resource information. This assistance is given to victims who "walk-in" or who have scheduled an appointment with the outreach worker.

The major functions of the DVRT Program include:

• Provide comprehensive crisis services that will respond immediately to incidents of domestic violence in the City of Selma, via hospital emergency rooms, "safe sites", etc.
• Provide immediate counseling and referral to professional counseling.
• Provide information and referral.
• Perform other necessary services.
• Resources and referral options: counseling for the individual, child and family; classes on legal options for battered women; and information on Anger Management Classes, Domestic Violence Women’s Support Groups, Children’s Services, Batterer’s Treatment Program, Survival Skills for Battered Women and Parenting Classes.

The DVRT’s role:

• Respond to crisis hotline calls via the 24-hour hotline from law enforcement.
• Identify the best method of response and time frame to respond to the hospital or other "safe" site.
• Provide referral, advocacy, support and safety planning information to victims.
• Complete necessary paperwork.
• Debrief team members and other staff.
• Follow-up (within one week, one month, three months, six months).
• Carry pagers for easier communication.
• Recruit volunteers.
• Meet monthly with police staff to communicate concerns, solve problems, assess progress and conduct cross training.

The City of Selma has a population of more than 18,000 residents. Selma officers responded to nearly 80 felony domestic violence calls and arrested more than 35 persons during the first year of the pilot program. Hopefully, the seed planted by DVRT will help bring an end to the domestic violence cycle in the Selma area.

Selma was also the first rural community in Fresno County to use trained, on-call volunteers to assist police officers in domestic violence intervention. After the first year of operation, participants and victims say the program works!

As a result of the success of the pilot program, the Selma Police Department has also established Rural Domestic Violence Roundtable meetings to assist allied agencies that wish to establish a DVRT Program in their community.

While domestic violence is a situation that hurts everyone, there are signs that social tolerance is waning in the Selma area. Reported incidents of domestic violence had initially risen after the program was underway, but Selma Chief Whiteside doesn't feel that this indication that the situation is worsening. "Rather", the Chief said, " I think it means there’s an increase in women who are refusing to ‘take it’".

For additional information:

Email: RuthB@CityofSelma.com
Telephone: Ruth Belmonte, Community Service Officer, 559.896.2525, Ext. 210
Agency website: Selma Police Department