Law Enforcement Victim Services Training and Technical Assistance
Law Enforcement
A crime victim’s first contact with the criminal justice system is predictive of whether they experience re-victimization or empowerment; whether they continue to access justice or choose to disengage. Law enforcement professionals are often the first point of contact for victims. NCVLI is working with law enforcement agencies across the country to create and enhance trauma-informed practices grounded in victims’ rights, through in-person and technology assisted trainings and technical assistance.
The NCVLI has been instrumental in helping us provide solid victim rights information and helped us provide information to victims to better serve them.
NCVLI continually brought our focus back around to making sure victims’ rights were considered in our entire process. From developing brochures to writing policy, they have been valuable at keeping our focus where it needed to be for victims.
IACP Partnership
A key partner in this work is the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). NCVLI has worked with IACP on two initiatives:
Integrity, Action, and Justice: Strengthening Law Enforcement Response to Domestic and Sexual Violence, a national demonstration site initiative, in which six law enforcement agencies have been receiving intensive technical assistance to improve response to investigations of sexual assault, domestic/intimate partner violence, and stalking.
Law Enforcement-Based Victim Services (LEV), a project seeking to establish or enhance victim services programs in criminal justice agencies in order to couple law enforcement-based services with community-based program partnerships to serve the broader needs and rights of all crime victims.
Read more about NCVLI’s partnership with IACP here.
NCVLI Partners with the International Association of Chiefs of Police to Strengthen Law Enforcement Response to Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking.
The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), working in cooperation with NCVLI and the U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), has announced the selection of six law enforcement agencies to be part of the Integrity, Action, and Justice: Strengthening Law Enforcement Response to Domestic and Sexual Violence national demonstration initiative. Through a competitive application process, the following agencies were selected: City of Shawnee, Oklahoma, Police Department; Clark County, Ohio, Sheriff’s Office; Denton, Texas, Police Department; Iowa City, Iowa, Police Department; Nampa, Idaho, Police Department; and Vancouver, Washington, Police Department.
Throughout this multi-year initiative, NCVLI, IACP and OVC will provide these agencies dedicated resources, ongoing support, and comprehensive training and technical assistance to: (1) identify aspects of agency culture that may create or sustain gender biases; (2) develop sustainable strategies to address and eliminate the impact of bias on the response to—and investigation of—sexual and domestic violence; and (3) implement trauma-informed, victim-centered procedures agency-wide.
In response to IACP’s announcement, Meg Garvin, Executive Director of NCVLI, stated “At the core of NCVLI’s mission is improving crime victims’ access to justice; achieving this requires removing barriers which is why we are truly excited to partner with IACP, OVC, and these dedicated law enforcement agencies on this critical effort to eliminate the impact of gender bias in policing.”
Education and Training
Improving understanding of victims’ rights and understanding how to afford those rights in a trauma-informed way without compromising a case is a critical tool of law enforcement. If you are a law enforcement officer or agency or a victim advocate housed within or partnering with law enforcement, we would love to work with you! Consider requesting a training or technical assistance from us.
Resources
To view two of our recent video resources, scroll down. To view hundreds of additional written resources visit NCVLI’s online Victim Law Library Included in the Law Library are “Select Victims’ Rights” guides with state-specific charts of victims’ rights laws; also included are “Privacy, Privilege & Confidentiality” guides that provide important information about general privacy law as well as about the specific states’ laws governing privacy, privilege and confidentiality. These guides, which are organized by state, can be found in the Law Library by choosing the “Other Resources” dropdown (under the “Resources Types” category) and the “Criminal” dropdown (under the “Systems” category).
This 10 minute video provides an overview and example of early communications between law enforcement-based victim advocates and crime victims.
This 12 minute video includes interviews with experienced law enforcement-based victim advocates sharing their expertise in working with crime victims.
This work is supported, in part, by Grant Nos. 2018-V3-GX-K049 and 2016-VF-GX-K024, awarded by the Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice to the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and subawarded to National Crime Victim Law Institute (NCVLI). The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the U.S. Department of Justice.
