U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Office for Victims of Crime

MARCH 2001

T

he 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

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 

Continued on page 2

Establishing Victim Services

Within a Law Enforcement

Agency: The Austin Experience

by Susan G. Parker
Cinda. A short time after Tom called 911,

responding officers discovered the bodies of

his girlfriend, Cinda Rae Barz, her 9-yearold 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

Victim Services

Division

I

n its 20 years of existence, the Austin

program has grown to include 35 fullor 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: 

■ Crisis Response Unit.

■ Major Crimes Unit.

■ Child and Family Violence

Protection Unit.

■ 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

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. 

OVC Bulletin

2

About This Bulletin

Continued from page 1

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.
3

ESTABLISHING VICTIM SERVICES WITHIN A LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY: THE AUSTIN EXPERIENCE

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.
OVC Bulletin

4

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 exhusband, 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
5

ESTABLISHING VICTIM SERVICES WITHIN A LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY: THE AUSTIN EXPERIENCE

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 problemsolving 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
OVC Bulletin

6

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

I

nitial 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

1–800–627–6872. 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

T

he 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 
7

ESTABLISHING VICTIM SERVICES WITHIN A LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY: THE AUSTIN EXPERIENCE

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
OVC Bulletin

8

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,
9

ESTABLISHING VICTIM SERVICES WITHIN A LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY: THE AUSTIN EXPERIENCE

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 counselors 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
OVC Bulletin

10

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.
11

ESTABLISHING VICTIM SERVICES WITHIN A LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY: THE AUSTIN EXPERIENCE

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

A

nn 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 KilleenLuby 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.
U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Office for Victims of Crime

Washington, DC 20531

Official Business

Penalty for Private Use $300

PRESORTED STANDARD

POSTAGE & FEES PAID

DOJ/OVC

PERMIT NO. G–91

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

1–800–627–6872 or 301–519–5500

E-mail for print publication orders: 

puborder@ncjrs.org

E-mail for questions: askovc@ncjrs.org

NCJ 185334

OVC Bulletin

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.

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.