It's not a women's issue to want to stay alive. It's a civil right. Beating back domestic violence Detroit Police try new tactics to save victims from abuse. As 250 Detroit police officers gathered at Cobo Center waiting for an eight-hour training on domestic violence to begin, some looked as if they might nod through the entire session. But when Sergeant Mark Wynn from the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department began speaking about his alcoholic stepfather, who brutally abused his mother for years, they gave him their full attention.
Domestic violence is a violent criminal breeding ground.
I would have served 19 years in prison. I was trained to be a criminal by a criminal. Wynn, who travels around the country training officers on domestic violence, heads a special police division in Nashville that exclusively handles domestic violence cases. Considered the best in the country, the Nashville program has reduced homicides related to domestic violence by 50 percent. The Detroit Police Department, which recently established a unit modeled after Nashville's, invited Wynn here last week to train officers in hope of similar improvement.