Aid to the Abused : New Van Nuys Police Team Focuses on Helping Battered Women

Over and over again, an angry husband stomped his boot into his wife’s face, cracking her bones and teeth--and prompting an emergency call to police.

The black-and-white rolled up to the couple’s Van Nuys apartment minutes later, responding to a disturbingly common call that patrol officers dread not only for its inherent volatility, but also for the hours it consumes in comforting the victim and helping her find treatment.

But this time, the officers were able to concentrate on police work, because traveling behind them was another vehicle from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Van Nuys Division. Inside this unmarked car were a reserve officer and a domestic violence counselor who would tend to the victim, freeing the patrol car to respond to other crimes.

Dubbed the Domestic Violence Response Team, the aides are the first group in the Los Angeles Police Department dedicated solely to the treatment of domestic violence victims. The six-week-old program reflects the LAPD’s new, cooperative focus on treating the victims of domestic violence.

“In the past there has always been two philosophies,” said Van Nuys station Detective Mitch Robbins, who oversees the team. “The LAPD philosophy is we attack the suspects, because we want to put them in jail. The domestic violence centers wanted to help the victims. Instead of working together, we were working on two sides of the thing. Now these two communities are working together.”

For the Van Nuys woman so brutally kicked by her husband, the team could not have been created too soon.

“She was all alone and couldn’t talk,” said Gail Pincus, a team volunteer who also serves as director of the Domestic Abuse Center, a nonprofit group in Northridge. Pincus accompanied the battered, semi-conscious woman to Valley Hospital in Van Nuys. “We contacted her relatives, filled out financial forms to help pay medical bills and provided counseling. This is not a police job. They don’t have the time.”

The team works weekends, when most domestic violence calls occur.

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According to Robbins, the mid-Valley area patrolled by the Van Nuys Division has more domestic violence arrests than any other Valley division: about 100 a week. Countywide, law enforcement agencies respond to more than 70,000 domestic violence calls each year.

Under the new program, regular patrol officers arrive first on the scene. They make arrests and take police reports. The Domestic Violence Response Team car follows.

The team’s duties include photographing injuries, taking victims to a hospital, calling relatives and serving emergency protective orders that prevent an attacker from approaching a victim for five days.

In the 69 times the Domestic Violence Response Team has been sent out during the past six weekends, it has issued 25 emergency protective orders and 28 sets of photos, relocated 13 people, and given out $125 in food vouchers, Robbins said. The patrol car made 21 arrests.

Under the law, victims of domestic violence no longer have a right to deny prosecution. Roughly 77% of men who beat up their wives or girlfriends in Los Angeles County are convicted, according to the district attorney’s office.

The team helps victims cope with the arrest or jailing of their husbands or boyfriends. “We help them to think about the things they need to do for themselves,” said Pincus, who has counseled several families about relocating and finding financial assistance.

Other services are designed to put them and their families in a safer environment. Because there are only 278 shelter beds for battered women in Los Angeles County, Robbins said he arranged for local motels in Van Nuys to provide temporary shelter and a local supermarket to provide emergency food.

“Most of our calls are the type where she says, ‘He beat me, he split, I ain’t going anywhere, and the kids are upset, but he pays the bills,’ ” said Suzie Caron, a team volunteer and counselor for the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women.

“It’s not the worst bloody-gory call, but it’s the most difficult to deal with because they have not been convinced that they both need to change their behavior or somebody is going to end up dead,” Caron said. “I think just the few minutes that a volunteer can give at the scene helps tell a woman that she doesn’t deserve this.”

The team also tries to teach children that domestic violence is not acceptable.

“We want to break the cycle,” Robbins said. “Part of this whole program is designed not to just get to mom and dad, but to get the kids, who are going to be the future victims or the batterers themselves.”

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So far, volunteers have handled nearly every kind of case.

“There have been women attacked with a machete, attacked with a knife, slashed with a broken bottle, choked, punched, hit, slapped, scratched,” said volunteer Tova Seder, 48, of Sherman Oaks. “Everything you can imagine.”

Sometimes, team members said, victims do not realize how severe their injuries are until the patrol car rolls away. LAPD reserve Officer Steve Sposta recalled a recent incident in which a 19-year-old woman was attacked by her ex-boyfriend while she slept with her 6-month-old baby.

“After the patrol car left, she kept complaining about ringing in her ears,” Sposta said. “But she didn’t think she needed to be transported to the hospital. We talked her into it and found out she had ear damage. Had she not been treated, she could have been deaf.”

The case illustrates the importance of having civilians on the team, Robbins said.

“What we have found is that victims will talk to a volunteer more readily than they will talk to a detective,” Robbins said.

Capt. James McMurray, commander of the Van Nuys station, said he is pleased that the new program frees up patrol cars to respond to other crimes.

“Our patrol cars used to take one to three hours taking care of domestic violence calls,” McMurray said. “We were getting wiped out on our response time. We were taking an average of eight minutes for all calls. Now we’re back down to around seven minutes.”

McMurray said he is also impressed that the only program cost has been gasoline for the car. The counselors are volunteers and the reserve officers are already funded through the LAPD budget.

Other detective divisions in the LAPD may soon create similar domestic violence teams. Detective Rick Papke of the Hollywood Division said he sees the team as a perfect supplement to the domestic violence kits his division has created.

The kits, which include cameras, emergency protective orders and contacts for battered women’s shelters, are now carried in patrol cars in the Hollywood Division to assist domestic violence victims.

“I think the Van Nuys program is excellent,” Papke said. “Hopefully, we’ll be doing the same things Van Nuys is doing in the next couple of months. And we’re hoping Van Nuys will be doing what we’re doing with these kits.”