Domestic violence cases in South Dakota are getting a closer look with help from a federal grant

Minnehaha County State’s Attorney Daniel Haggar said one in four women in South Dakota are affected by domestic violence, protection order violations and stalking.

The data point was part of media briefing Monday morning at the Sioux Falls Police Department. Haggar, along with South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley, laid out the statistics while introducing their new effort, issued through a federal grant, to address the statewide issue of domestic and intimate partner violence.

“Domestic violence is an issue in South Dakota,” Haggar said. “It’s an important issue and we can have victories if we see those numbers down in this specific year. This is a chance for us to continue that good work.”

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The South Dakota Office of the Attorney General first announced their new effort through a news release Friday. The grant was given as a result of a partnership between the South Dakota Attorney General, Minnehaha County State’s Attorney and Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead.

“This partnership allows law enforcement a better opportunity to combat domestic violence, and it does it by focusing on high-risk cases and repeat offenders,” Jackley said.

The grant funding is expected to be approximately $518,000 across three years to be used mostly in Minnehaha County but expanded through the whole state, Haggar said. The changes include having a prosecutor in the Minnehaha County State’s Attorney’s Office and an investigator in the sheriff’s office solely focused on the issue.

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The genesis of the grant began in October 2023 when the Federal Office of Violence Against Women preliminarily awarded the grant funds to the State of South Dakota to improve criminal justice responses locally and statewide on issues of domestic violence, dating violence and stalking.

The positions of an added deputy state’s attorney and a part-time deputy sheriff in Minnehaha County are expected to move forward soon, once the updated application submitted by the offices is approved, Haggar said.

The idea is to establish a statewide Domestic Violence Fatality Review Commission. Its process will be to identify those touchpoints of contact with the victim to understand which moments were served well and which fell short and hopefully avoid those situations in the future, according to Haggar. This will be done across jurisdictional boundaries.

“We will start targeting those high-risk domestic violence offenses (and) intimate partner violence offenses, focusing on 50 to 100 of the worst cases that we’re seeing” Haggar said. “We’re going to make sure that the victims have special attention (and) the services that they need.”

While the approximate number is about 100 important cases in Minnehaha County, statewide there are about 250 cases which need their attention, Jackley said.

The investigations will be conducted with the sheriff’s office and Sioux Falls Police, while the attention to victim services is where the South Dakota Voices for Peace and the South Dakota Network Against Family Violence and Sexual Assault comes in.

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“It’s bringing together victim services (and) the law enforcement aspect on the investigations, and it does it through the prosecution,” Jackley said.

“In assisting victims of domestic and intimate partner violence, we work with immigrant clients,” South Dakota Voices CEO Taneeza Islam said. “And the overwhelming majority of our clients right now are undocumented women of domestic violence. So, not only is there a language barrier issue, there’s also immigration status issues.”

Islam talked about the education immigrant communities need for victim protection as well as their “overwhelming fear of getting deported" upon "any contact with law enforcement.” The organization will be receiving the additional funds to assist in addressing these racial equity elements in domestic violence crimes.

“A lot of our victims have a pathway to US citizenship because of being a victim, and often times, they don’t know that and (even) law enforcement doesn’t know that,” Islam said. “We’re really excited to be a part of this coalition with law enforcement, so we can identify more systemic barriers and make statewide change.”

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The Pennington County State’s Attorney’s Office will also be a partner to work on a statewide level and have a lethality review team for cases where a death is involved.

In talking about preventive measures to bring down the overall number of domestic violence cases which take place in the state, both Jackley and Haggar touched upon aspects of addiction and alcoholism to recognize patterns in cases of abuse as a way to get ahead.

An additional important aspect the grant is targeting is to give victims the courage to come out, report their situation and ask for help to be removed from it, Jackley and Haggar said. The idea is for them to be “heard and feel protected and supported,” Haggar said.

“The end goal is better results, less domestic violence (and) victims who are being better served by my office, the investigators, the attorney general (and) making sure that they’re connected to the resources in our community,” Haggar said. “We have a lot of good people in the community that are willing to step up here, so just making sure that we’re serving those victims as best we can.”

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: How a federal grant is helping South Dakota address domestic violence