Title: Establishing Victim Services Within a Law Enforcement Agency:
The Austin Experience
Series: Bulletin
Author: Susan G. Parker
Published: March 2001
Subject: victim services, law enforcement -- general
24 pages
61,440 bytes

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graphic file available from this Web site or order a print copy from Office
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U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
Office for Victims of Crime

OVC Bulletin
March 2001

Establishing Victim Services Within a Law Enforcement Agency: The
Austin Experience

----------------------------

About This Bulletin 

Law enforcement sees more victims of crime than any other component of
the criminal justice system. Most victim assistance is provided through
prosecutors' offices, but only 21 percent of major crimes get to the
prosecutor's office. This means that about 80 percent of crime victims may
not have victim assistance available to them unless a victim assistance
specialist or unit exists within the law enforcement agency.

The new OVC handbook titled First Response to Victims of Crime states
that "how law enforcement first responds to victims is critical in
determining how victims cope, first with the immediate crisis and, later,
with their recovery from the crime." This response often influences the
victim's participation in the investigation and prosecution of the crime as
well as the victim's likelihood of reporting any future crimes. 

Recognizing this critical role, law enforcement leaders are integrating
victimization issues into their training for line officers and incorporating a
strong victim assistance component into their agencies. Using the Austin
experience, this bulletin describes the benefits to both victims and law
enforcement for having victim assistance staff incorporated within law
enforcement. Relevant to both police and sheriff's departments, this bulletin
uses an actual case handled by the Austin (Texas) Police Department to
illustrate how victim assistance staff function on the law enforcement team.
It also recounts how Austin went about establishing and funding its first
full-time victim assistance coordinator position, and how victim services
grew from a one-person operation to its present four-unit Victim Services
Division.

OVC recognizes that the majority of law enforcement agencies are much
smaller than Austin's police department. We also recognize that most law
enforcement agencies cannot financially support nor do they need a victim
assistance division the size of Austin's. However, we feel that the
information in this bulletin will be helpful to law enforcement agencies,
regardless of size, that are interested in establishing a victim assistance
component within their agencies as a way to improve their responses to
victims.

----------------------------

The Austin Police Department's Victim Services Division is among a
relatively small number of victim assistance divisions that work within law
enforcement agencies. Being part of a law enforcement agency allows
Division counselors to quickly respond to victims' needs, meet officers at a
crime scene, and provide victims with a mix of immediate crisis counseling
and practical advice. Until recently, victim services divisions within law
enforcement agencies were relatively rare. Most victim services programs
were located at nonprofit agencies or within prosecutors' offices, although
only 21 percent of major crimes get to the prosecutor's office. This means
that about 80 percent of crime victims may not have victim assistance
available to them unless a unit exists within a police department, according
to Chief Stan Knee of the Austin Police Department. "Our Victim Services
people arrive minutes after the officer gets there, as the paramedic is
wiping the blood off the forehead of a badly battered spouse," Chief Knee
said. "They get a better perspective of the victim than from just reading a
police report." The program initiates crisis counseling during or shortly
after a crime has occurred, rather than weeks or months later. The Victim
Services Division provides crisis and trauma counseling to victims, families,
witnesses, and others, and assistance to patrol officers and investigators on
cases. 

Establishing a victim services program within a law enforcement agency
makes sense for several reasons, advocates say. If victims receive support
from victim services counselors, they may be more likely to report a crime
or cooperate in an investigation. That support is an added tool for law
enforcement agencies to increase their conviction rates. Victim services
work complements community policing, which emphasizes establishing
relationships with members of a neighborhood. Having a victim services
counselor on the scene can free up officer time; the counselor can talk with
a victim while the officer goes back into service. Also, the counselor can
act as a liaison for a child if a parent is being arrested and officers need to
move to the next call. A law enforcement agency is also a natural entry
point for victims to see advocates/counselors after they have been
victimized. 

The number of programs located in police and sheriff's departments is a
small but growing part of victim services assistance in the United States. In
1999, Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) programs awarded victim assistance
grants to only 209 law enforcement agencies out of 18,000 nationwide. In
comparison, 428 prosecutors' offices received VOCA victim assistance
grants in 1998 out of 2,500 nationwide. Still, the number of law
enforcement agencies receiving VOCA grants has increased from 113 in
1997. 

Victim Services Division

In its 20 years of existence, the Austin program has grown to include 35
full- or part-time staff and 300 volunteers. The Victim Services Division
sees about 14,000 victims or witnesses a year with an average of two
contacts per victim, according to Ann Hutchison, founder and former
director of the Austin program. The Division has four units: 

o Crisis Response Unit.

o Major Crimes Unit.

o Child and Family Violence Protection Unit.

o District Representative Unit.


In addition, an intake specialist takes care of walk-ins and cases that do not
fit neatly into the four units mentioned above. The Victim Services Division
also houses ALERT (Austin's Linking of Emergency Response Teams), a
mass disaster critical response team set up to respond to incidents with
multiple casualties. ALERT often receives calls from other cities, states, or
national agencies to send staff and volunteers to help cities experiencing a
crisis such as a school shooting. Using the following actual homicide case,
each unit is discussed to exemplify how it functions within a law
enforcement agency.

Around 2 a.m. on September 11, 1998, a frantic maintenance worker,
Tom, called the Austin (Texas) Police Department. He told them that for
several hours, he had not been able to reach his girlfriend by phone or
pager. When he got off work, he drove to her house. Finding his girlfriend's
car parked outside, he knocked on the door but received no answer. He
told the police that this was not normal. He was always able to get in touch
with Cinda. A short time after Tom called 911, responding officers
discovered the bodies of his girlfriend, Cinda Rae Barz, her 9-year-old
daughter, Staci Mitchell, and Cinda's roommate, Frances Michelle
Fulwiller. Cinda's 9-year-old daughter had been strangled, and the two
women had been bludgeoned to death. Both women worked as juvenile
probation officers and were well known in their community. As a matter of
procedure, the officers did not give Tom the details of what they had seen;
however, Tom knew that something was terribly wrong. The officers took
Tom to the police station and interviewed him.

The two young women and the little girl had been killed and had left behind
grieving family members, coworkers, and classmates. The difficult task of
notifying relatives, friends, and neighbors about the deaths and of helping
the survivors with their grief fell to the Victim Services Division, which has
been part of the Austin (Texas) Police Department for 20 years.

Crisis Response Unit

The primary goal of the Crisis Response Unit (herein referred to as "Crisis
Unit") is to provide on-the-scene crisis intervention for victims of crime
and other trauma and to refer those individuals to the Victim Services
Division's other units or outside social service agencies for followup
services. The Austin Crisis Unit, which operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week in 8-hour shifts, can respond to all calls of victims, including victims
of sexual assault, robbery, assault, suicide attempts or threats, family
violence and domestic disturbances, and child abuse and neglect, as well as
survivors of homicide victims. 

The Austin Crisis Unit teams are equipped with an unmarked car, a police
radio, a "handi-talkie," and a Mobile Data Terminal, which is a computer
network that allows officers to communicate with each other through typed
messages. Each team consists of a team leader (usually an employee of the
Victim Services Division, although there are about 16 volunteers who are
also trained as team leaders) and a community volunteer. Each team is
assigned to a sector of the city. Between 7 p.m. and 2 a.m., six teams work
throughout Austin. When a team arrives at a scene, they ask the officer in
charge what he or she needs them to do. That might mean stabilizing the
victim, doing an assessment, providing crisis intervention, and referring the
victim to other services. A crisis team can spend anywhere from 30 minutes
to 10 hours with a victim, depending on the case.

On the night of the triple homicide, Gary Makelki, a licensed professional
counselor and Crisis Unit team counselor, was called by Austin officers to
come and talk to Tom, the person who called the police and was the
boyfriend of victim Cinda Rae Barz. Makelki noted that Tom was in shock-
-very worried, upset, frustrated, and angry. "He wanted to know what
[was] going on at the scene. He was very, very angry and pacing. He was
crying and then hitting the wall. He wanted to call his mother. He was not
getting any information." Although Tom felt entitled to more information,
policy required that officers keep most of the information confidential until
the killer or killers were found.

To calm Tom down, Makelki explained to him the police procedures and
why the police were asking him so many questions. Makelki stayed with
him and, through listening and reframing, helped him with his perceptions
of responsibility and guilt. Makelki talked with Tom to assess whether he
was suicidal. After about 5 hours at the Austin Police Department,
investigators released him. Tom had brought along a friend who Makelki
also spent time talking with.

Makelki provided several important Crisis Unit functions to Tom. He made
sure that Tom was not alone while detained at the police station for
questioning. He reassured Tom that someone would be in touch with him
the next day with resources and information about the case. Makelki also
helped Tom calm down with exercises like breathing and internal dialogue.
He also warned Tom that he might have other potential reactions including
self-blame--that he should have gotten to his girlfriend's house earlier.
Makelki said, "Sometimes when you educate victims in advance about
potential thoughts and reactions that they might experience, it can
normalize the reactions when they do come, which improves a victim's
ability to cope."

Major Crimes Unit

The following day, Dolores Litton, a licensed psychologist and homicide
counselor in the Austin homicide unit, followed up on Makelki's promise,
checking in with Tom on how he was coping and giving him updated
information on the investigation. The Major Crimes Unit has counselors in
the homicide, robbery, sex crimes, and traffic fatality units of the
department. The Unit's primary goal is to provide counseling, advocacy,
information, and referral to all victims, witnesses, and survivors of crime.
These counselors provide followup services to cases that the Crisis Unit
team has responded to the night before. They also assist victims who have
not been seen by a Crisis Unit team. Counselors in the Major Crimes Unit
work closely with detectives in relaying information to victims about a
case, explaining procedures, and helping with details like funeral planning.
The counselors can also get expedited approval for state crime victims'
compensation to help victims pay for sudden expenses like funerals or
cleanup services when a violent crime has taken place in their home.
Counselors can assist when a detective's questioning might make a victim
distraught and unable to continue the inquiry. The Major Crimes Unit work
takes place over a longer period of time than that of the Crisis Unit.
Counselors contact victims at least four times after the initial contact. In
unsolved cases, counselors may stay in touch with victims once a month for
years. 

When Litton received the call about the triple homicide, she began working
on one of the most time-consuming cases of her career. Litton
accompanied a detective to the home of Frances Fulwiller's mother, who
lived in the same neighborhood as her daughter. Litton had the difficult job
of notifying the mother about her daughter's death and of preparing the
way for the detective to request a positive identification of the daughter.
Litton recalled the mother's initial response to the news: "This is a bad
joke. Get out of my house."

After the detective asked the mother questions for his investigation, Litton
stayed behind to offer support and comfort. The mother, who was a grief
counselor, told Litton that her husband had died just a year earlier. She
owned the house where her daughter lived. Litton also helped shield the
mother from reporters who were soon camped outside her house.

Litton then began notifying the family of the two other victims (Cinda Rae
Barz and her daughter). Some time that afternoon, a detective in the
victim's house found an Iowa address that turned out to be where the
woman's parents lived. Litton enlisted the assistance of local law
enforcement agencies in Iowa to ensure that Cinda's parents were told of
their daughter's and granddaughter's deaths. Later, the family called Litton.
"When they called me, they couldn't even talk," Litton said. "They finally
said, 'Is this true?' I said, 'Unfortunately, yes, this is true. This is what the
detectives know.' I told them the little things that we knew, that they were
killed in the house and that officers were looking for the boyfriend of the
other victim, who was a suspect."

The following day, Litton met with Frances' mother to assist her in
contacting the funeral home and medical examiner. She also assisted in
filling out crime victim compensation forms for funeral expenses and costs
related to cleaning the house where her daughter had been killed. Litton
also helped Frances' mother look for one of her daughter's cats that was
missing after the killings. While the missing cat never returned, the mother
located the other cat, which was still in the house. Litton also assisted
Cinda's ex-husband, who could not afford to travel to Iowa for the funeral
of his ex-wife and daughter. Litton helped arrange a viewing of the bodies
in Austin. 

In the months following the killings, Litton stayed in close touch with the
victims' families, giving them updated information before it appeared in the
media. A day after the killings, an arrest was made. The suspect was a
friend of Frances'. He killed her, and then he waited for Staci and Cinda to
return home and killed them. 

Litton also frequently talked with Cinda's sister-in-law, who had children
who were close to Staci. They were having a difficult time in school and
had been depressed since Staci's killing. Litton told the mother not to be
afraid to talk to her children about Staci's death, to be as honest as possible
with them, and to get them into counseling. 

At one point, Litton mediated a conflict between the two families. Frances'
mother, who owned the house where the victims had lived, wanted to sell it
but the family in Iowa had not yet come to Austin to collect Cinda's
belongings. Litton encouraged the family in Iowa to pick up their
daughter's things quickly. When they came, she helped them fill out a
victim's compensation form and put them in touch with a support group for
parents of murdered children in Iowa.

The needs of the families and friends of the victims resulting from this
crime were tremendous, Litton said. "All of them wanted information. All
of them were obviously very emotionally affected by it." The detectives
would have experienced great difficulty with this case had Victim Services
not been involved.

Child and Family Violence Protection Unit

The little girl who was killed, Staci Mitchell, had recently moved to a new
school. The day after the murders, Victim Services counselors from the
Child and Family Violence Protection Unit went to Staci's old school to
talk with her classmates before they heard about the news on television.
Staci's cousin also attended the school and was well known by her
classmates. The Child and Family Violence Protection Unit provides family
counseling, school counseling, and outreach services to children and
families in violent homes and to children exposed to any violence. The
Unit's goal is to create a centralized team consisting of investigators,
attorneys, and counselors to provide comprehensive services in domestic
violence cases. Counselors primarily work with cases in which no arrests
have been made, such as a suspected batterer fleeing the scene. They assist
victims of family violence in obtaining protective orders and with other
legal matters. Counselors also provide short- and long-term trauma
counseling to victims of family violence and their children and help with
safety planning. The counselors are the first point of contact when a victim
calls or comes to this Unit. Referrals to Safeplace (a battered women's
shelter and rape crisis center) and other trauma counseling services are a
normal part of the Unit's services. 

The Unit also provides counseling, advocacy, information, and referral for
all child victims. The Unit is housed with investigators assigned to crimes
against children and works closely with counselors from the Austin
Children's Advocacy Center and Child Protective Services caseworkers.
Counselors conduct videotaped interviews in documenting testimony of
child victims. In addition, counselors assess victim and family needs, and
provide short-term counseling and referrals to other social service agencies.
Counselors prepare victims for court and act as a liaison between the court
and victims.

Because the Unit works with school children, counselors from the Unit
received the call to counsel Staci's classmates the morning after the killings.
The school wanted to notify Staci's classmates before the news of the
murders was reported so that the children would hear about it "in a softer
and gentler way," said Connie Geerhart, a licensed social worker in the
Child and Family Violence Protection Unit. 


Geerhart, along with some coworkers, went to Staci's former school,
where children knew her best, and spoke to the school counselors.
Geerhart spoke to a class of fourth graders that had some children who
knew Staci quite well. Geerhart introduced herself and asked how many
children remembered Staci. She said that she was there to tell them that
Staci and her mother had been killed. She stopped talking, and the children
immediately began asking questions. How was she killed? Does her father
know? How about her cousin?

"One little boy started crying. He was just so sad. Then another little boy
put his arm on this boy's back." Geerhart said that there was great respect
in that classroom for people's emotions. Geerhart was careful to use
concrete language about the deaths with the children. She said, "A lot of
people use euphemisms like 'she passed away,' or 'she went to sleep,' which
is not a good thing. Saying that someone has gone to sleep can make kids
afraid of going to bed."

The counselors helped school officials write a letter about the killings for
the children to take home to their parents. Geerhart encouraged the
children to talk with their parents or to determine a plan to care for
themselves if their parents were not home or they were not comfortable
talking to their parents. One girl said that she could talk to her older sister.
After talking to the class, Geerhart saw that three students were very upset
about the news of Staci's death. She pulled them out of class so that they
could talk further with another counselor.

"When I talked with them briefly outside of the classroom, they were very
supportive of each other," Geerhart said. "They were hugging each other,
and when they went off to see the other counselor, they held on to each
other, sobbing and crying. They talked about specific memories of Staci
and said what a sweet girl she was." Talking to Staci's classmates was an
important part of their healing process, Geerhart believes.

With easy access to television, it was likely that the children were going to
find out about the murders. Geerhart stated that it was so much better for
them to receive the information from a counselor first. She said, "For one
thing it shows a lot of respect for kids that their feelings are important. It
honors them rather than [pushes] them aside."

District Representative Unit

As the reaction of Staci's classmates illustrates, a murder affects many more
people than victims and their families. The Austin Victim Services Division 
established the District Representative Unit to address community needs.
The idea behind the Unit is that if a crime occurs in a neighborhood, the
residents of that neighborhood are also victims and may need assistance in
coping. In every crime, in fact, there is a ripple effect. For example,
someone who sings in a church choir with a member who is raped may find
herself suddenly depressed or anxious. The same feelings can arise in a
coworker or the babysitter or the family two houses down the street. The
District Representative Unit casts a wide net in trying to identify these
other victims to provide them services. The Unit team works closely with
law enforcement officers (assigned as district representatives) who work
routinely with the community. The counselors bring their problem-solving
and mediating skills to delicate situations and help police assess the needs
of the community. The officers can provide safety and reassurance to
counselors and crime victims in volatile situations. Through the counselors'
followup and intervention, they hope to reduce further calls to the police
department and to solve the problems that led to law enforcement
involvement in the first place. The counselors also do networking, outreach
with neighborhoods, and collaborating with other social service agencies. 

On the night that Cinda, Frances, and Staci were murdered, several
neighbors heard and saw the police cars outside the victims' house. TV
crews soon swarmed the area. Residents of the middle-class neighborhood
were worried. At first, it was unclear whether the killer was a stranger
preying on the neighborhood or someone the victims knew. "All of a
sudden, we had people calling trying to find out, was this a random act or
was it a known assailant?" said Joel Atkinson, a licensed social worker and
supervisor of the District Representative Unit. "People in the neighborhood
look down their street, which is usually a calm street where kids ride their
bicycles, and they see 20 police cars and crime scene tape."

Atkinson and his colleagues started contacting neighbors. Early that
morning, they spoke to the immediate neighbors who had heard the
commotion of the ambulances, fire department, and police. The counselors
told the residents that an incident happened resulting in a death and that the
Unit would get more information to the neighbors as soon as possible. The
911 operators started getting calls from neighbors around the block, and
the counselors decided they needed to broaden their outreach. In the next
few days, counselors and volunteers worked a 14-block surrounding area,
going to each house with a prepared release from the Austin Police
Department. By this time, a suspect, whom one of the victims knew, had
been arrested. Neighbors no longer had to worry about a stranger
terrorizing the area where they lived, but many were still affected.


The counselors from the District Representative Unit held a community
support meeting at a nearby church and at a school for anyone needing
more intensive, individual work with a counselor. They held at least one
community support group each month for 3 months following the killings.
"Some people went for information, but as you talked about it, you could
tell that people were still hurting, grieving, and in shock," Atkinson said.
"We would talk to some of them individually and then, if needed, refer
them for more help." The Unit supports the belief that if those affected by a
crime are counseled soon after the crime is committed, then healing can
happen more quickly. Atkinson said that providing services quickly
definitely reduces long-term psychological stress and anxiety. 

The counselors also held counseling sessions for the women's coworkers,
who were in shock over the murders. Workers were told that they might
not be able to concentrate at work for some time. Within a few days,
several workers said they felt nauseated, which, according to Atkinson,
most likely stemmed from their feelings of anger, grief, and loss.
Coworkers' anger was sometimes directed at the counselors because they
felt inside information about the case should be given to them since they
were part of law enforcement. 

Initial Considerations

Initial issues to consider when establishing a victim services program within
a law enforcement agency include defining the victim assistance program
by identifying its goals, addressing funding possibilities, and stressing the
importance of supporting a full-time victim assistance coordinator position. 

Defining the Victim Assistance Program

Hutchison determined that the Austin Victim Assistance Program had two
sets of customers: the victims and families, and the officers themselves. The
first step in developing the program was to define the program by
identifying the program's goals within the law enforcement agency. The
overall goal of the Austin program was "to minimize the adverse emotional
and psychological stresses resulting from being the victim/survivor of crime
or trauma which included the victim's family, witnesses, neighborhood, and
public safety responders within 24 hours." According to background
information on the program, addressing these needs will facilitate the
victim's, witnesses', and neighborhood's willingness and ability to cooperate
with the criminal justice system in the investigation and prosecution of the
crimes. 


Funding

Once a program has defined its goals, the next step is to find funding.
Among the possibilities are grants from sources like the state Victims of
Crime Act (VOCA) program or the state Violence Against Women Act
program. Both are federal grant programs that the states use to provide
funding for local victim assistance or domestic violence programs. The
VOCA program funds approximately 4,000 victim assistance programs
nationwide, including the Austin program. A number of different programs
are also funded through the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, and additional funding may be
available from these agencies. More detailed information can be found on
the Grants and Funding page on OVC's Web site (www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc)
or by calling the OVC Resource Center at 1-800-851-3420. Although
grants are a good way to get started, it is important to eventually secure
funding from the law enforcement agency so that the victim services
program is seen as an integral part of the department. 

Full-Time Victim Service Coordinator

In a larger law enforcement agency, the job of a victim service coordinator
must be full time, according to Hutchison. Sometimes departments have a
secretary take on the job part time, or an officer assumes the
responsibilities. The program, however, is not likely to become established
without someone whose full-time job is dedicated to making sure that the
needs of law enforcement and victims are met.

Implementing a Victim Services Program

The tension of being part of law enforcement but also an advocate for
victims is inherent when a victim services division is located within a law
enforcement agency. Officers may be suspicious of these outsider
"do-gooders" who may trample on their turf. Outside agencies may see
victim advocates and counselors who work for a law enforcement agency
as unable to truly advocate for victims, said Hutchison. To get to the point
of providing such comprehensive services to the victims' families, relatives,
classmates, and coworkers in the murders of the two women and young
girl took years of work. 

The Austin Victim Services Program began in 1980 when the local district 
attorney received a grant through the federal Law Enforcement Assistance
Act (LEAA) to hire three victim coordinators--one for the district
attorney's office, one for the county attorney's office, and one for the
Austin Police Department. The main purpose for the coordinators, from the
original point of view, was to gain the support of victims in pursuing
criminal cases, hopefully leading to higher conviction rates. At the time,
Hutchison had been working at the Austin Child Guidance Center with 
sexually exploited children. She helped the police take statements from
young children so that they would not be retraumatized. She was hired as
the Victim Coordinator with the Austin Police Department. Like others in
the field, Hutchison saw the program as a way to improve the quality of life
and safety for victims and their families.

A year after the grant started, LEAA was eliminated, potentially
jeopardizing the program at its birth. The police chief, however, supported
the program and went to the city manager and city council for funding.
Hutchison was hired as a member of the police department. As she built the
Victim Services Division within the Austin law enforcement agency over
the past 20 years, Hutchison developed an approach that could help others
who want to start a similar program. Hutchison outlined three phases for
establishing a victim assistance program within a law enforcement agency.
These three phases emphasize the importance of understanding the law
enforcement culture and being able to fit in, becoming an essential part of
the agency, and developing staff and preventing staff burnout.

The First Phase: Understanding the Law Enforcement Culture

The first phase in the evolution of the Austin program, which comprised
the first 3 years of the program, ensured the survival of the program.
Hutchison was on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. "I would come back
to work any time to prove that it was viable," Hutchison said. "As much as
a police chief might tout it, if it isn't in the culture and available, you won't
break through."

In the first few years, the Austin program set up the Crisis Response Team
and the Major Crimes Unit, both of which initially went out two nights a
week because of limited personnel. The program learned from its mistakes.
For example, a counselor who was assigned to the homicide unit was then
pulled off by Victim Services to respond to other cases. The sergeants in
homicide, however, wanted the counselor to be around and available.

Secure Support From the Top

Law enforcement officers and supervisors are used to seeing programs
come and go, and so they are likely to be skeptical of anything new.
Compounding this attitude is the fact that civilians are coming into a
paramilitary organization. It is never easy for nonsworn people in a law
enforcement organization to be listened to, according to Chief Stan Knee.
That is why it is critical for the chief to be visibly behind these programs.
Those working under the chief, like assistant chiefs and others who have
political aspirations, will take a cue from the chief about whether or not a
program is valued. "I had top management support from the chief,"
Hutchison said. Therefore, a supportive supervisor is essential in
establishing a victim services program in a law enforcement agency. "If
[officers] see that the chief is not 100 percent behind the program, they get
the message. If someone makes a cutting remark and the powers that be
don't stop it, then it is seen as okay to do that," said Commander Billy
Pence. "If the chief seems neutral or opposed, then that's the green light to
discount the program or to raid its funding." 

For those who want to establish a similar program, Hutchison suggests
how to approach a chief. All chiefs struggle with the dilemma of not having
enough patrol officers and having too many calls. Program advocates need
to point out that victim services counselors can help free up officer time by
working with victims while officers return to pressing calls and
investigations. Counselors can also bolster cases by helping victims feel
more comfortable with law enforcement. Chiefs have a humanitarian
interest in helping to make their communities safer and improving the
quality of life, all of which support the goals of victim services.

Ensure That Victim Services Reports to a High-Level Supervisor 

Victim services personnel should report to a high-level supervisor like a
sheriff or assistant police chief rather than a sergeant or captain. When
Hutchison first started working at the Austin Police Department, she
reported to a captain in the major crimes division. The captain wanted her
to stay around the office, and he could veto her working with patrol or
training, which was part of the larger mission of the program. This made it
more difficult for her to establish the program with line officers or other
parts of the department. When she later moved under an assistant chief, she
had more freedom to make program decisions with less supervision.
Hutchison had the flexibility to work throughout the department, thus
expanding her duties (e.g., training cadets, helping children in a narcotics
sting).

Make Victim Services Part of Police General Orders 

Another way to institutionalize the program is to put victim services work
in the general orders that law enforcement officers must follow. General
orders in a police department govern the conduct and responsibility of
sworn officers. Requiring the use of victim services in the general orders
also ensures that cadets will be trained from the beginning about the role of
victim services in the police department. In the Austin Police Department,
the general orders require officers to involve the Victim Services Division
in 14 types of calls, including homicide, child abuse or child death,
aggravated robbery of a business, mass or partial disaster, hostage
situations, aviation disaster, and sexual assault. Counselors may receive
other calls by request from officers, emergency medical services, or the fire
department, or by going to the call and standing by. The Victim Services
Division recently had new general orders approved by the department that
allow crisis teams to respond to any call and work with any victim or
survivor after the officer's or detective's job is finished. If the scene is
unsafe so that a counselor cannot stay at the scene alone and the officer is
impeded from returning to service, then the counselor must move the
victims to a safe location. If such a move is not possible, the counselor
should leave information about available services for the victim to use later. 

Get Key Officers Involved--Find the Informal Power Structure 

When Hutchison began building this program, she quickly identified the
most respected and influential officers. To do so, she went to every shift
for every sector in the city and asked officers whom they would want as a
backup in a dangerous situation. In each shift, the same two officers were
always chosen. Hutchison went to them and told them that their fellow
officers chose them as their most respected officers. She asked them to be
part of a patrol officer committee that would write guidelines for exactly
how a crisis response team would respond to calls and offer assistance to
patrol officers. She could not pay overtime but offered compensatory time.
In the end, 60 percent of the officers showed up for the committee and 98
percent of the platoons were represented. The process took 1 year from the
initial discussion with patrol officers to formally establishing the guidelines.
"I never said, 'Should we have a crisis team?'" Hutchison pointed out. "I
said 'How do we do this? What is the least threatening way and the most
acceptable way to do this?'"

By having patrol officers develop these guidelines, they had some control
over this program that proposed to send civilians into crime scenes. Once
the officers were assured that they were still in control of their cases, they
were willing to allow victim services to begin a partnership with them,
working as a team.

Make Their Jobs Easier 

Hutchison also rode out on countless shifts with officers and was called to
help with cases by the major crime homicide unit, which has the highest
status in the department. Hutchison was seen as a part of a team given
access to the most guarded and secured scenes. Her presence demonstrated
that she was accepted among those respected detectives. She also wanted
to be visible to remind patrol officers that she was there to help them. In
addition, Hutchison wanted them to see that she was careful and followed
protocol around crime scenes. "The key is making their jobs easier,"
Hutchison said. "We needed to build trust. We not only saved officers'
time, but we didn't muck up their cases. This was a criminal investigation,
highly secure and confidential. We showed ourselves to be respectful of
their power and domain of control. They were willing to give some power
back and see us more as partners."

In any law enforcement agency, small or large, one way to get started is to
find a part of the city where the commanders are willing to try this
program. Sergeants need to be behind this as well as the chief. For patrol
officers, their sergeants are more influential in their day-to-day activity than
is their chief. If one or two sergeants believe in the program, they can sell it
to their officers.

Understand the Dynamics of the Law Enforcement Culture and Fit In

Hutchison says that it takes a certain type of person to blend into the law
enforcement culture. Police are concerned about the security of their case
and are wary of outsiders who might inadvertently ruin the investigation or
evidence. Someone who is setting up a victim services division within a law
enforcement agency needs to understand that culture and feel comfortable
there. That may mean bantering with the officers while still pushing the
program. Also, Hutchison emphasizes that the police department is not the
same as working in a nonprofit advocacy agency. While advocacy is a top
priority, victim advocates must also understand the law enforcement
culture and blend in to attain the goals of meeting the needs of victims and
officers. Hutchison gives the example: "A victim advocate may hear two
officers making a joke at a crime scene away from others' ears, which may
not be necessarily cold-hearted but just relieving tension."

Start With the Basics--Help Patrol Officers With Family Violence Calls

When the Austin Victim Services Program started, Commander Billy Pence
was a patrol officer and part of the informal power structure that Hutchison
had identified. Police had the attitude that "we're cops and you're not,"
Pence recalled. Patrol officers, however, also recognized that they had a
problem they did not know how to solve. "The thing with cops is that we
were making these calls for family disturbances and, back then, unless we
saw the man assault the wife, we couldn't do anything," Pence said. "I
remember making those calls and feeling really bad about leaving. When
Ann [Hutchison] came up with the program, it was an answer. It freed up
our time. [In the past] there was a lot of time spent sitting with victims--
that was time consuming and yet we felt bad that we weren't doing more."

Initially, the police chief wanted Hutchison to work on family violence
cases. Most of the family violence calls came between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m. on
the weekends when all the social service agencies, except rape crisis
shelters and shelters for battered women (normally full), were closed. To
have a trained counselor able to come to the scene immediately meant that
an officer could get back in service faster and respond to other calls. An
officer also had something more to offer a victim. Counselors could
provide a sympathetic ear, crisis counseling, and practical resources for
victims of family violence. (By the time the Austin Victim Services
Program began in March 1980, the officer guidelines committee had
recommended that counselors be available for all call requests.) 

Victim services counselors started with providing basic services to patrol
officers. If police were executing a series of search warrants and had to
arrest parents, counselors would take care of the children so officers could
go on to the next call. Babysitting may not be the favorite duty of trained
counselors, but it often allowed them an opportunity to assess any trauma
or problems that the children were having, thus demonstrating that the
counselors were a valuable addition to the police department. They also
established a goal of arriving at a scene within 15 minutes or less for 75
percent of calls so that the officers did not have to wait for them.

Assistant Police Chief Michael McDonald recalled an incident early in the
Victim Services Program in which the counsel- ors proved themselves. He
was a patrol officer at that time, and one morning at about 8 a.m. he
received a call of a possible sexual assault. He arrived at an apartment and
knocked on the door. A woman opened the door just a couple of inches.
She was distraught and afraid. McDonald remembers her hands trembling.
McDonald and his partner talked to her and tried to persuade her to let
them in, but she would not open the door further. He worried that the
assailant might still be inside and wondered whether he should force his
way in. But he sensed that the woman was alone and did not want to
traumatize her more by barging in. McDonald decided to call Victim
Services. It was one of the first times he had asked them for help.

A female counselor arrived and talked to the woman for about 45 minutes.
Then the counselor told McDonald that she thought the woman was
embarrassed to talk to another woman about what had happened, which
surprised McDonald. The counselor recommended calling in a male
colleague, which the officers did. The man spoke to her and persuaded her
to let them in the house. Four hours after McDonald arrived, the woman
opened the door. Once inside, the woman told them that she went into her
apartment building the night before when a man followed her, forced his
way into her place, and raped her. From the description, it sounded similar
to two other rapes that had taken place in the area. Police had a suspect,
but none of the victims could positively identify him. From the look of this
case, police had run into the same difficulty. The woman was reluctant to
say much, and she had already taken a shower, thus destroying some of the
evidence of the crime. 

"We started asking questions and she froze up," McDonald said. "The
counselors talked to her and said that they knew how bad it was for her but
that it was important to catch the person responsible for this. She shouldn't
feel ashamed." The counselors explained to her that the officers needed to
gather her clothes for testing, and she eventually told the counselors which
clothes McDonald and his partner should collect from her bedroom. The
counselors accompanied the woman to the hospital examination. The
evidence that the officers gathered, along with her positive identification of
the assailant, helped convict the suspect. "[The counselors] made a
tremendous difference," McDonald said. "We didn't have to overreact and
make things worse for her."

Address Problems and Conflicts Quickly

When problems occur, and they will, it is critical that the victim services
coordinator address them quickly. For example, an officer might perceive
that a counselor did not follow his or her requests. It is important for
victim services counselors to have established good rapport with law
enforcement officers so that officers will come to them when there are
problems. Counselors need to listen to the officers' issues and validate their
feelings and issues. According to Hutchison, every time she talked to an
officer about a problem, it worked out well. All of the officers were more
than willing to see both sides or accept Hutchison's apology, if necessary.
In fact, most officers now are protective of the Austin counselors and want
to work out differences quickly, according to Hutchison.

Second Phase: Becoming an Essential Part of the Agency

The second phase of the program is changing victim services from being
viewed as a luxury to being accepted as an essential part of the law
enforcement agency. In Austin, that took an additional 10 years. During
that time, Hutchison focused on program development and on ensuring that
the staff delivered quality services. One of the difficulties for Hutchison
was handing over power to her staff. For the first several years, she was the
program, and she knew she could do the job. For it to grow and provide
more comprehensive services, Hutchison had to delegate responsibilities
and duties. 

Add More Services 

The program also concentrated on securing grants to add more services
and on establishing performance measures and collecting statistics to back
up the Division's usefulness. During the second phase, the program added
the Children's Service Unit through a grant in 1984 and the Family
Violence Protection Unit in 1989. In 1985, counselors also started formally
offering debriefings for officers who worked on traumatic cases. From time
to time, Hutchison would call together the patrol officers' guidelines
committee to check on how the program was going and to make any
needed changes.

"By 1990, we were seen as a strong, important part of the Austin Police
Department," Hutchison said. "That doesn't mean that we are equals. That's
just a reality. Civilians are support staff to law enforcement. But we are key
personnel to advocate for victims, the community, and the officers."

Develop and Track Measurable Goals and Keep Good Statistics

Having measurable goals and keeping track of them is a way to monitor a
program's progress and to demonstrate to law enforcement and to funders
that the services are making a difference. Each unit of the Austin Victim
Services Division has specific goals that are tracked every month. The
program's highest number of calls are for family violence, and it has a goal
of reducing the number of calls to the same household or the recidivism
rate with the families they work with to 10 percent; the national average is
55 percent to 65 percent. In 1998, the recidivism rate was about 20 percent
on calls that Victim Services worked on in Austin. According to statistics
compiled by the Austin program, if officers respond to four or more calls to
the same address for family violence, it escalates the predictability of an
aggravated assault or homicide by 75 percent. The Victim Services
Division also has a goal of getting some services to 100 percent of all
victims of violent crime. Counselors are reaching about one-third of the
victims, Hutchison said. Those services can include having volunteers call
victims who have not received services to see how they are doing and
whether they need any emotional support. The Victim Services Division is
also working on running public service announcements and putting up
billboards so that crime victims will know about victim services. The
Victim Services Division is establishing alliances with faith communities,
who can help victims with needs such as transportation, house repairs,
food, and rent.

Another important statistic to keep is the number of officer hours saved by
providing these services. That statistic is a good way of quantifying to law
enforcement agencies the impact of these victim services. In 1999, Victim
Services Division Crisis Teams saved the Austin Police Department patrol
officers 3,672 hours--time that they would have otherwise spent with
victims. Instead, Victim Services counselors worked with victims in many
ways, which included calming them down, taking statements, and arranging
for transportation or services. This allowed officers to finish investigating a
crime or to take more calls. 

Third Phase: Maintaining Staff

Take Care of Your Own 

In this third phase, the Victim Services Division took a step back and
examined what they needed to do to take care of themselves as well. While
they often held debriefings for officers involved in cases of traumatic
deaths, they rarely did the same for themselves. According to Hutchison,
the counselors were so concerned about proving to officers that they were
tough enough to handle the job that at times they neglected their own
well-being. Now, policies are in place to make sure that counselors take
care of themselves and are taken care of. No one can handle more than
three death cases per week without approval from a supervisor.
Supervisors meet every other week with counselors, and the units hold
staff meetings twice a month to see how people handle group interactions.
Every counselor talks to a staff psychologist every 6 months for a checkup.

Hire Staff With Varying Backgrounds

When hiring for a victim services unit, it is important to hire skilled
individuals who reflect the needs of the community. The Austin program
has made special efforts to bring cultural diversity to the unit--to hire staff
who speak Spanish, have specialized training in working with children, and
have expertise in crisis intervention. The program hires mental health
professionals with varying levels of experience who handle a variety of
situations from crisis intervention to assessment. In addition, the Austin
program has a number of staff who support victims through the criminal
justice system by providing them information about the case and about
their rights. Many programs choose to have victim advocates in this
position. The Austin program utilizes other mental health professionals for
this work. Everyone who is hired or who volunteers first undergoes careful
screening to ensure that they are suited for the often stressful work. 

The program has also set up a structure for volunteers. At first, the
program used volunteers who were criminal justice interns and
undergraduates in mental health, but the cases were too intense and
demanded too much immediate assessment for the students' abilities. Now,
all volunteers must have a background in mental health or 2 years of
counseling experience. They are given a criminal background check and
must go through 60 hours of training over 8 weeks to be on a crisis team.
Those who want to volunteer must go on an 8-hour ride-along shift with a
police officer who gives input about whether they are well suited for this
work. Volunteers also must commit to working one 8-hour shift a month
for a year. 

People volunteer for the crisis team because they want to use or develop
their skills in crisis counseling. Not a lot of academic courses exist on crisis
counseling, according to Steve Holifield, a licensed professional counselor
who coordinates the training. Law enforcement personnel teach some of
the volunteer classes, which is one way for them to become invested in the
program. Paid counselors can nominate volunteers to be team leaders who
drive the car, work the radio, and make all the same decisions as the staff.
The program currently has 12 volunteers who are team leaders. Holifield
keeps in touch with the volunteers by e-mailing them or calling to check in
after each shift that they work.

Conclusion

Now that the Victim Services Division at the Austin Police Department is
well established, the program faces the challenges of meeting the demands
of a decentralized department. When Hutchison started 20 years ago, she
knew virtually every officer in the department. That is no longer possible.
Austin has grown from 250,000 to 800,000 residents in the past two
decades. The District Representative Unit, which was set up in 1996, is one
answer to that problem. Those counselors are also able to address the
previously unknown victims--like a woman who sang in the choir or the
coworker and kids down the street who were affected when someone they
knew was killed. In the past, Victim Services may not have reached out to
them.

In the months following the triple homicide, Victim Services counselors
continued to provide services to the victims' families, friends, and
coworkers. A little more than a year after the murders, the suspect, Louis
Castro Perez, was convicted of murder and given the death penalty.
Officers had found a palm print on a bloody tile floor, which matched a
print of Perez that they had on file. Prosecutors never discovered a clear
motive for the slayings. In the midst of this horror, the victims' families
have had someone from Victim Services at their side, right from the start.
"They had access to assistance that they otherwise wouldn't have had," said
Delores Litton, the counselor in the homicide unit who worked most
closely with the victims' families. "They had information about what would
happen next in the investigation. They had some guidance on what to do
next, like how to find counseling for their children. They did not have to
worry about those details . . . ."

Biography

Ann Hutchison is the founder and former director of the Victim Services
Division of the Austin (Texas) Police Department. For more than 20 years,
she has been a therapist and counselor and provided crisis intervention for
trauma victims and family members. She has intervened on behalf of
victims, survivors, children, and employees in events such as the
Killeen-Luby Massacre, the Waco-Branch Davidian siege, and the
Oklahoma City Murrah Federal Building bombing. Hutchison has been
responsible for many projects and grants and their implementation to seed,
expand, and build direct services for victims and survivors.

Hutchison's work has been recognized statewide and nationally.
Hutchison's Victim Services Program in Austin, Texas, has been
recognized by OVC as one of the top two law enforcement victim
assistance programs in the Nation and by the National Center for Victims
of Crime for "Best Model Crisis Team." Hutchison also has been featured
three times on the Rescue 911 television show for her Crisis Team Unit,
Family Violence Unit, and for her work on debriefing officers by victims
services staff. Hutchison has assisted law enforcement agencies nationally
and internationally (including Japan, Canada, England, and Germany) in
developing victim services programs. She has received the Governor's
Award for Excellence in Victim Assistance in a Law Enforcement Agency
in addition to the YWCA Women Leaders Award for Outstanding
Achievement/ Health and Human Services.

For Further Information

For additional information about the Austin Police Department's Victim
Services Division, please contact--

Austin Police Department
Ann Hutchison
Director, Victim Services 
715 East Eighth Street
Austin, TX 78701
512- 974-5889
Fax: 512-974-6619
E-mail: Ann4698@aol.com

For other victim-related information, please contact--

Office for Victims of Crime
U.S. Department of Justice
810 Seventh Street NW., Eighth Floor
Washington, DC 20531
202-307-5983
Fax: 202-514-6383
World Wide Web: www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc

Office for Victims of Crime Resource Center
P.O. Box 6000
Rockville, MD 20849-6000
1-800-851-3420 or 301-519-5500
E-mail for print publication orders: puborder@ncjrs.gov
E-mail for questions: askovc@ncjrs.gov

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About the Author

Currently a freelance journalist, Susan Parker has reported on violent
crime, police misconduct, legal trends, and high-profile court cases and
developed feature stories examining how crime and violence affect people's
lives. Her articles on the conflict in Guatemala were published in Time
Magazine and The San Francisco Chronicle, including a feature on an
innovative program to help children cope with the trauma of war.

----------------------------

Preparation of this document was supported by the Office for Victims of
Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The
opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this
document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the
official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Office for Victims of Crime is a component of the Office of Justice
Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Bureau
of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

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NCJ 185334