Informing the Public Informational posters and brochures designed for the public were placed in hospitals, shelters, courtrooms, jails and other locations where domestic violence victims might notice them. These had noticeably decreased toward the end of 1997. However, since placing a new ad in the buses and light rail vehicles, the number of calls returned to a previous high level. Hundreds of Notifications Since this program was initiated in late 1996, approximately 110 successful victim notifications have occurred each month. Because it is necessary to keep a victim's identification confidential, the data kept on registration calls includes only the number of victims who have registered for notification and how many successful and unsuccessful phone contacts were made.
Statistics regarding the number of cases indicates an increasing level of usage.
Telling Their Stories Many people who received the notification service have called to express appreciation and to share stories about how they benefited. For example, The VNS notified a woman shortly after midnight to inform her that her husband had just been released from our Elmwood facility. She immediately telephoned her parents to join her as part of a personal safety plan she had developed while the offender was in custody. She had sought and gained the assistance of several resources listed on the Domestic Violence resource card, which the police officers had given her at the time of her husband's arrest. Unfortunately the husband arrived first and began the kind of angry confrontation that typically led to a severe beating.