CT has seen hundreds die in domestic violence. Can a new panel bring change to save lives?

While the number of domestic violence incidents in Connecticut has fallen, the number of family violence homicides has not, totaling 870 deaths since 1987. Officials are now looking at ways to prevent more deaths.

The new Family Domestic Violence Criminal Justice Response and Enhancement Advisory Council brings together state and local police, victim advocates, lawmakers, judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, rehabilitation facilitators, nonprofits, survivors and more to identify and close gaps that leave domestic violence victims vulnerable.

The work comes as the state has made gains in reducing domestic violence incidents, the number of family violence homicides has not followed suit. Possible topics include how courts handle domestic violence, how information is shared and the impact of court advocates for children.

Liza Andrews said, the vice president of government and public relations for the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence, whose CEO, Meghan Scanlon serves as the co-chair of the new council, recognizes domestic violence as a preventable crisis.

“A lot of these events unfortunately can be predictable. The question is, do people know what they’re looking for? And do they know that help exists before it gets to that final act of control?” Andrews said. “We definitely think that we could get to a place where there are no homicides.”

“The strongest response for survivors is going to be a coordinated criminal justice response,” Andrews added. “Our biggest hope is that by having all of the various stakeholders of the criminal justice system together at one table, we can break down those silos.”

In Connecticut last year, 21 people died in family violence homicides. The victims ranged from 11 months to 77 years old. More than 75% of those killed were women.

State Sen. Mae Flexer, the co-chair of the new council said she is hopeful that new conversations around domestic violence response systems and data will eventually result in reduced homicides. She also hopes it will translate to better outcomes for survivors.

“I don’t think it can be understated how emotionally ravaging it is, to be someone who’s trying to survive domestic violence, and how overwhelming the system can be to navigate,” Flexer said. “The more we can do to provide support to folks when they make that brave decision to leave and make the system less complicated, the more people are going to be able to transition from being victims to survivors.”

Gaps in the system

While legislative recommendations for this legislative session are still in the works, Flexer said the council will begin looking at updating the state’s domestic violence model policy for law enforcement.

She said that the focus of the nascent council will evolve over time, but early areas of interest include examining the success and implementation of domestic violence dockets, reviewing opportunities for information sharing across agencies and interest groups and analyzing the impact of court advocates for children involved in domestic violence situations, among other topics. Eventually, Flexer said she also wants to work towards establishing a more uniform domestic violence protocol for judges as well as improving and increasing oversight for domestic violence training initiatives among judges.

A key area for early analysis among committee members is the implementation of protective orders and firearm seizures — In 2022, more than 50% of family homicide cases involved a firearm. In three of the 19 incidents, the victim had an active court order of protection against the perpetrator.

“There’s still a gap in the system in that nobody’s checking to make sure the firearms were actually turned over,” Flexer said. “The system isn’t equipped to do that follow up, and we don’t want victims out there thinking that they’re safe because the firearm by law had to be turned in when in fact, no one’s checking to make sure it did.”

Lt. Ryan Maynard, commanding officer of the Connecticut State Police Training Academy, said that making contact with an alleged perpetrator is standard practice when a court issues an order to surrender weapons.

“If there is a violation of a protective order or people are required to surrender weapons, um, especially from my experience and from what we see, we, the response is pretty immediate,” Maynard said. “There isn’t a lot of downtime as soon as something happens, it is sent out and people are dispatched.”

Maynard said officers are required to complete 16 to 20 hours of domestic violence training, in addition to taking a two-hour refresher course every three years. He said officers also receive additional training when a change is made to the state’s Family Violence Model Policies for police officers.

Maynard said he is hopeful for an expansion of Connecticut’s criminal information policy, updated model protocols and a focus on early intervention and education efforts within Connecticut schools to teach students the signs of domestic violence and support resources.

“If we are identifying problems, if there is a disconnect, if there is a gap, we have a lot of talent in that committee,” Maynard said. “The opportunity is there to share that and also develop solutions as to how to really resolve those problems.”

“A ton of areas we’re going to look into”

Chief of the Enfield Police Department and former State Police Colonel Alaric Fox said that over his 40 years in law enforcement, the police response to domestic violence has changed a lot.

“At that point, people were saying things in training at the police academy that domestic violence was largely a family concern. And our responsibility was to try to do whatever we could, make an arrest if it really felt necessary, but to try to mediate situations. And as I even say those words to you now, 40 years later, I’m astonished and kind of embarrassed that that was the approach,” Fox said.

Over time, and especially within the last 10 years Fox said law enforcement has made major gains in establishing uniform policies, reducing instances of duel arrests, and fine-tuning their approach to domestic violence cases.

“We’re not the marriage counselors and we’re not the divorce lawyers, but short-term safety planning on the hands of the police done at the scene — that’s certainly an involvement and an improvement from the last 10-plus years,” Fox said.

Another important resource Fox noted is the lethality assessment screening for domestic violence.

According to the CCADV, Connecticut is the only U.S. with full municipal and state law enforcement participation in the Lethality Assessment Program.

An analysis of more than 44,000 lethality screens conducted between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021 found that 95% of “high danger” victims who spoke with a counselor during a Lethality Assessment Screen followed up domestic violence support services.

Fox said he is also looking forward to a key new advancement — the statewide expansion of the Alert Notification GPS monitoring of domestic violence offenders charged with a restraining or protective order violation.

The program, which alerts and protects domestic violence survivors when accused perpetrators cross predetermined geographical zones, was first piloted in 2010 in the Bridgeport, Danielson and Hartford court districts.

Nancy Tyler, an attorney on the council who is a survivor of domestic violence, said this technology is a game changer for survivors.

“I just kept going back in my mind to being alone in the garage with a man with a gun to my head, thinking (about) if I had GPS tracking back then,” she said.

In 2009 Tyler was kidnapped and held hostage for 12 hours by her ex-husband, who is now in prison serving a 70-year sentence.

“If (GPS tracking) had been available back then, somebody could have warned me before I got in the elevator and maybe none of that would have happened,” Tyler said.

She said her biggest goal is to see the completed rollout of the system.

At a recent council meeting, Deputy Director of Family Services for the state’s Judicial Branch Joseph DiTunno said the program is expected to be operational in all districts by October 2025.

State Sen. John Kissel said he is curious to know whether more funding, technology or personnel could speed up the implementation.

“I’d love to have a bill on the policy to see if we can expedite its deployment,” State Sen. John Kissel said, adding that he hopes increased awareness of the potentially life-saving program will reassure residents and deter perpetrators of crime.

“That’s just the ice tip of the iceberg,” Kissel said. “There’s a ton of areas we’re going to look into.”

State Rep. Tammy Nuccio said that she would also like to see an accelerated launch, specifically for districts in Eastern Connecticut, which are slated last on the state’s implementation list.

“To me, that’s an asinine plan,” Nuccio said. “Why would you just focus on all of the west, all of central, and then all of the east? Why are we not looking at where domestic violence cases are the highest?”

For Nuccio, this work is personal. As a child, Nuccio said she experienced being in a home with domestic violence. The murder of a young woman in Vernon — a town Nuccio represents — reignited her charge.

“This is something that’s happened more times than I like to count in the state of Connecticut lately. Once is too many, twice is an issue, three times — you know you have a problem,” Nuccio said.

Nuccio said she is exploring policies that would break down barriers in obtaining and maintaining protective orders against abusers, including virtual filing options that would not require a trip to the courthouse for a traumatized victim.

Nuccio said she also has an eye on release notification protocols, parental rights suspension when a domestic violence defendant is charged with murder, and tough-on-crime approaches that ensure perpetrators of heinous violence are prosecuted to the fullest extent.

She is hopeful that varied perspectives within the council will result in policy recommendations that can bring about real change.

“If we can see less instances (of domestic violence) then we’re going to see less women dying, we’re going to see less children dying. We’re going to see improvement in how we’re handling people who commit domestic violence. We’re going to see good stuff come from this and that’s really my hope,” Nuccio said.