Standing up to stalking: Awareness an important step toward staying safe, officials say
Jan. 20—MITCHELL — Anna Nasset was operating a gallery in Townsend, Washington, when her life got turned upside down by some unwanted attention.
In 2011, she became aware that a man was stalking her. Combined with a handful of other difficult life events, Nasset was forced to shut down her business and move across the country to Vermont. There she was able to rebuild the pieces of her life, and a new calling working with law enforcement and victim's service organizations eventually led to the imprisonment of her stalker.
Today, through her Stand Up Resources program, she shares details of her experience with those who work to prevent what happened to her from happening to others.
Dan Fechner, a detective with the Mitchell Police Division, recently studied Nassett's situation as part of his training.
"I went to training last fall and one of the case studies was a female that had been stalked in Washington state, and by the time the perpetrator finally made contact with her, it had been two to three years. She was completely unaware," Fechner told the Mitchell Republic. "She had so much difficulty with this guy that she moved across the country and he followed her there, too, and she had to work with prosecutors in both states to finally put the subject in jail."
Nasset's case may seem extreme, but as a general rule, stalking is reality for many South Dakotans. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 27.8% of South Dakota women and 23.6% of South Dakota men experience intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner sexual violence or intimate partner stalking.
It can take on several forms, from physical stalking where a person puts themselves in close physical proximity to a victim, to cyberstalking, where the perpetrator hovers around the victim in online spaces, such as social media and text messages.
Coleen Hoffman, who works in client services and as an outreach manager for the Safe Place of Eastern South Dakota in Mitchell, said stalking can be difficult to identify, even for the victim to whom it's happening.
"It's happening, but stalking is almost unrecognizable unless we're able to get that education and be able to recognize it and respond," Hoffman said.
That's why it's important for the public to educate itself on the dangers of stalking, Hoffman said, and the Safe Place of Eastern South Dakota is trying to get that word out with a series of seminars in area communities during the month of January, which is recognized as National Stalking Awareness Month. They held one such presentation recently at the Mitchell Public Library and are working to schedule another in the near future in Howard.
Safe Place of Eastern South Dakota utilizes materials from the Stalking Prevention, Awareness, & Resource Center (SPARC) of AEquitas, an organization that works to "help the helpers" by making sure service providers — such as domestic violence shelters and rape crisis agencies — campuses, law enforcement agencies and other agencies where stalking victims come for help and support have the training and resources they need to better respond to victims and survivors.
Hoffman agrees that education on the subject is key to fighting stalking. Being aware of how it can happen and recognizing when it is happening is a major step forward in the fight, she said. In modern times, stalking often takes place in the online world.
"There are different patterns. They can do it through surveillance, life invasion, interface or intimidation, so there are different ways they can stalk, but stalking and technology is one of the bigger patterns," Hoffman said.
The SPARC organization offers several general tips for victims of stalking and how best to proceed to address it through the help of professional victim services organizations and law enforcement. Those tips include:
* Trust your instincts. Victims of stalking often feel pressured by friends or family to downplay the stalker's behavior, but stalking poses a real threat of harm. Your safety is paramount.
* Call the police if you feel you are in any immediate danger. Explain why the stalker's actions are causing you fear.
* Keep a record or log of each contact with the stalker.
* Save evidence when possible. Stalkers often use technology to contact their victims. Save all emails, text messages, photos, and postings on social networking sites as evidence of the stalking behavior. You may also want to consider how to use your technology and your devices in a safer manner.
* Get connected with a local victim service provider who can assist you in exploring your options as well as discuss safety planning.
Out of those tips, Hoffman and Fechner both said documenting the stalking is an important step that can open the door for law enforcement to get involved. Stalking can be a tricky charge to bring against a suspect, and the more evidence of a crime the victim can provide, the better. Victims sharing what they know with trusted friends and organizations is also important to make others aware of their situation.
"Documentation is the biggest thing. And trust their gut if something is going on. Report that to somebody like an advocate and start building that case. That's the biggest help. And you should always have somebody know what's going on if they're feeling uncomfortable," Hoffman said.
Getting victims to open up about their situation can be one of the more difficult parts of addressing the problem, she said. Many don't wish to be seen as overreacting to a situation, or are embarrassed by their predicament.
But just getting the word out that there are courses of action for them to take can be enough to get those victims to take the first steps to getting help.
"It's something that people don't want to talk about. So it is really difficult to get people to come (to the presentations), but there are other means for people to reach out. They can get on the internet, they can give us a call anonymously if they need to to get information," Hoffman said. "It's not something popular that people want to talk about, but it's good to have that awareness because it is out there."
Jennifer Landhuis, director for SPARC, said in an archived webinar from the organization that the fear of a victim generated by a stalking suspect can take on a very personal feel that is hard for the victim to describe to others. In that case, it's important to listen to and support the victim and learn the context of that fear.
Understanding the victim's situation can be important when presenting a potential stalking case to law enforcement, Landhuis said.
"One of the things we know is that we fail to really understand the context behind stalking situations and instead only see the situation and only what the victim articulates to us on the surface level," Landhuis said. "So it's really important when we're talking about stalking to think about the context that something might be frightening to the victim but not to those of us who are the responder."
Organizations like Safe Place of Eastern South Dakota can help with advice, safety planning and assisting with documentation of a case. If deemed appropriate, they will also work directly with law enforcement to utilize legal tools like protection orders.
"We just offer them choices and figure out what direction to go," Hoffman said.
Fechner said documenting a stalking incident can be a lot of work, but every piece of information can be useful in bringing a case against a perpetrator.
"It takes a lot of work on the victim's part in documenting the unwanted contact. (It's important to bring) that documentation in for us to review and turn around and interview the suspect and determine if there's a violation of the law and then take the appropriate action if there was a law broken," Fechner said.
Combatting cyberstalking can be even trickier, Fechner said. It takes time to go through social media contacts, and subpoenaing different IP addresses can slow down the process. But it's all doable with a little focused effort on the part of the victim.
It's here that the "trusting your gut" tip can come into play. If your instincts tell you something is wrong, listen to those instincts and begin your documentation of the stalking immediately. If your instincts are proven correct, you will have already started the process of fighting back.
"The toughest part for us is people not realizing when it's actually starting and to start documenting it as soon as possible. It could escalate really quickly," Fechner said. "Taking screenshots of their phone if it's digital stuff, taking pictures. Pictures do a great job of documenting time and location, which is always helpful. Even if it isn't of the suspect, taking a picture helps document when and where they were."
Fechner said it depends on each individual case, but initially, stalking charges begin at the misdemeanor level in South Dakota.
Of course, any victim who feels they are in immediate danger should contact law enforcement by dialing 911.
But even if you have a suspicion you may be the victim of stalking, Hoffman recommends the public educate itself at
or
or by contacting victim service organizations like Safe Place of Eastern South Dakota. Victims of stalking have courses of action they can take, and there are groups out there who are ready and willing to help.
"It's always good to bring that awareness, because when we live our day to day lives, we don't usually recognize it if we don't know and understand it. So this is a great time to be able to do that," Hoffman said. "Then the people can know what it is, how to recognize it, and we can help walk alongside somebody who is going through this and get them the information they need."
The Safe Pace of Eastern South Dakota can be reached at their crisis hotline at 605-996-4440 or by visiting
Updates on upcoming stalking seminars will be posted on the organization's
Facebook page.