Domestic violence calls are unfortunately common in 911 centers across the country, but their frequent occurrence doesn’t make them any less dangerous for either the callers themselves or for responding officers. Proper training, tools and support are key to effectively handling domestic violence calls.
With October being Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we’ve highlighted a few of the tools and trainings PowerPhone offers to help your call handlers consistently respond to each domestic violence incident.
Domestic Disturbance Protocol
Domestic disturbances present unique challenges from other similar calls like assault or trespass. Passions run higher when the parties are well known to each other and situations can often escalate quickly.
Total Response, our 911 call handling solution, offers certification training in Law Enforcement Dispatch (LED) which includes CACH software that has a Domestic Disturbance protocol. Through the training and use of the solution, proven questioning techniques identify the scope of an incident, inform the dispatch determination and quickly collect essential information for responding officers.
Identifying the presence of any weapons or injured parties are two very important facts a dispatcher can gather during a domestic disturbance.
Total Response’s scenario-based protocols help guide call handlers to consistently ask these questions during highly emotional calls. These questions help better protect the caller and the responders.
When appropriate, the pre-arrival instructions from the Domestic Disturbance protocol provide time-tested techniques for de-escalating an incident and helping prepare the scene for officer arrival.
Domestic Violence Intervention Training
911 call handlers can have an immediate impact at the scene of a domestic disturbance. This impact can include anything from recognizing code words when a victim is unable to communicate the true nature of the call to documenting an ongoing disturbance, connecting with the parties as a calming influence, or preparing the scene for responder arrival.
To help reinforce skills learned in the LED training, and for those learning to better handle these types of calls, PowerPhone offers a career development training in Domestic Violence Intervention to help ensure that each of your call handlers has the training and awareness necessary to fully address the caller’s needs.
Our Domestic Violence Intervention course teaches dispatchers how to best assist callers and responding officers on domestic disturbance calls with in-depth coverage on topics like the dynamics of domestic violence, children and domestic violence, and preparing/protecting responders.
Domestic violence calls may be common in your PSAP, but such calls are never routine. Assessing these calls and ongoing training based on real-life scenarios helps agencies address potential problem areas before issues erupt.
Through subject-matter training, the use of comprehensive protocol guides, and assessing how the calls are being handled, your agency can be prepared for any domestic violence incident and ensure that you are delivering the highest standard of care to your community. PowerPhone is here to help you.
