There's really no way to separate it out. Sheriff Taylor Douglas said his office will fully cooperate with Tanner's elder abuse initiative. When those reports come to us from the Department of Children and Families, we will certainly coordinate our efforts with Mr. Tanner's office and put some people in jail that are taking advantage of our elderly. Computer records of crime classifications often do not show the true picture of such crimes as elder abuse, Douglas said. We know the numbers are larger than what the computer says they are.
Much abuse falls under the category of domestic violence.
We probably need to fine tune that so we can identify elder abuse more accurately. The report will include the name of the law enforcement officer to whom the complaint was referred and a tracking number. The SAO will monitor the progress of the investigation, working with the other agencies involved with the case until the officer determines whether or not there is probable cause to bring criminal charges. The SAO's Intake Division will, Tanner said, review all of the elder abuse complaints in which a law enforcement investigation was conducted and they will file a criminal charge, ask for additional information, or make a preliminary decision not to prosecute depending upon the facts and circumstances of each case. Even those elder abuse cases where either the law enforcement agency or the Intake Division recommends no prosecution, the case will be referred to Humphries for a final review before the case is closed, Tanner said.