Amid Endicott crime spike, new program seeks to reduce domestic violence-related homicides

A new program to combat the likelihood of intimate partner homicides has been launched by the Endicott Police Department as the number of homicides in the village spiked to a 10-year high.

The Lethality Assessment Program, which was created by the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence, is being implemented by the Endicott Police Department, Johnson City Police Department, Vestal Police Department and Rise-NY, which provides comprehensive licensed domestic violence services to Broome County residents, Endicott Chief of Police Patrick Garey announced Tuesday.

This comes in the wake of three homicides on Fillmore Avenue, Adams Avenue and North Arthur Avenue, in just over a month within the village.

"As with any chief of police, it's of great concern to me anytime we have a violent death in the village," Garey said. "It's a huge concern and something certainly that we dive right into and look at."

How the program works

Currently, when police officers respond to domestic violence incidents, Garey said they fill out a Domestic Incident Report, which has been the standard practice for decades.

Now, with the program, certain indicators observed by the officers will prompt them to fill out a lethality assessment tool. Officers will then ask the victim a series of questions, including:

• Have they ever used a weapon against you or threatened you with a weapon?

• Do they leave you threatening messages?

• Do you think they might try to kill you?

The victim's responses gives the officer an idea of whether the person is at increased risk for intimate partner homicide or serious injury, Garey said.

"If they hit a certain score on the screening tool, we make an immediate call to the domestic violence hotline through Rise and they immediately are in the mix," Garey said. "It really just speeds up the process for us to get those important services to victims quickly."

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When the program will start

Garey said the department soft launched the program last week as booklets, which officers will take to the scene to assist them in the process, were printed by BAE Systems and made available to the officers.

"It quite frankly does not take a lot of training on the police end," Garey said. "So it's something that we can get going right away."

How the program will help

The program will help reach victims in highest need, Rise-NY executive director Nicole Barren said Tuesday.

According to research done by the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence, when looking at women killed by a male intimate partner in the past year, only about 4% had contact with a domestic violence hotline or agency but one in three had contact with a police department, Barren says.

"That clearly shows that we need to have a police response if we're going to combat domestic violence," Barren said. "We truly believe this is going to be a good program, it's going to lead to a better coordinated community response, better police training. And most importantly, I think, more awareness for victims about the resources available to them."

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Programs like this will also add to the department's lineup of programs in place designed to address the problems at hand before they escalate.

The village is already working with Rise for domestic violence related issues, the Addiction Center of Broome County for substance abuse disorder issues and ACCORD, a dispute resolution center located in Binghamton.

"Unless we're brought in ahead of time, there's really no way for us to try to prevent something like that," Garey said. "We really try to engage in services and identify the root problem and then get the right partnership there."

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Garey also said there is no increased safety concern with any of the incidents that have occurred over the last five weeks and the investigations are showing that in all three incidents, the victim and suspect had some sort of prior relationship.

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This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: What to know about new program to reduce intimate partner homicides