Code of Maine Rules › 16 - DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY › 227 - MAINE CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACADEMY BOARD OF TRUSTEES › Chapter 13 - MINIMUM STANDARDS FOR MANDATORY POLICY ON RESPONSE TO DOMESTIC ABUSE › Section 227-13-3 - MINIMUM POLICY STANDARDS

Current through 2024-29, July 17, 2024
A law enforcement agency shall adopt a written policy
				  regarding response to domestic abuse, which at a minimum includes provisions
				  for the following:
1. A policy
				statement that recognizes domestic abuse as a serious crime against the
				individual and society.
2. A
				requirement that officers be familiar with the provisions of
				15 M.R.S.
				§
										321 (protective orders in crimes
				between family members), 19-A M.R.S. chap. 103 (protection from abuse), 17-A
				M.R.S. chap. 9 (offenses against the person), 17-A M.R.S. § 15
				(warrantless arrests by a law enforcement officer), and the applicable chapters
				of the most recent edition of the Maine Law Enforcement Officer's Manual
				(LEOM).
3. Emergency Communication
				Specialist (ECS) procedures regarding the receipt and response to a call for
				service. These procedures must address: receipt and prioritization of the call;
				the information that should be elicited from the caller; the exigency of a
				situation; excited utterances; providing responding officers with any
				information of a recorded prior incident of abuse involving the abused party
				and verifying the effective dates and terms of a recorded order of protection;
				providing responding officers with any available information concerning either
				party; and the necessity of a back-up unit. These procedures must include
				instructions for the receipt and handling of temporary or final protection from
				abuse orders to ensure that service of the orders are attempted without
				delay.
4. Complaint response
				procedures, which must address: receipt of the call; tactical approach to the
				call; initial contact; situation control process, on-scene investigation, and
				enforcement action; and post-incident follow-up with the victim with respect to
				all calls for service of a domestic abuse nature.
5. Agency responsibilities and procedures
				when a domestic abuse complaint involves a law enforcement officer, a family
				member of a law enforcement officer, or any employee of a law enforcement
				agency. These procedures must include an investigative follow-up and review by
				the administration that is consistent with these standards.
6. Agency responsibilities and procedures
				when any member of the law enforcement agency shows signs of experiencing or
				perpetrating domestic abuse. These procedures must include an investigative
				follow-up and review by the administration that is consistent with these
				standards.
7. Responsibility of an
				officer to determine who may be the predominant aggressor and take the
				appropriate enforcement action against that person.
8. Circumstances under which a warrantless
				arrest may occur.
9. Procedures for
				the administration of a validated, evidence-based domestic violence risk
				assessment recommended by the Maine Commission on Domestic and Sexual Abuse,
				such as the Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA), and the
				conveyance of the results of that assessment to the bail commissioner and the
				relevant prosecutor.
10. A process
				to ensure that, when a person files multiple, separate complaints regarding the
				behavior of another person that may indicate a course of conduct constituting
				stalking under
				17-A
				M.R.S. §210-A, those complaints are
				reviewed together to determine if the other person has engaged in stalking
				under 17-A M.R.S.
				§210-A.
11. Responsibilities of an officer when an
				arrest is not appropriate.
12.
				Responsibility of a responding officer to remain at the scene to protect the
				safety of persons in danger and to obtain medical assistance, if necessary,
				including in all cases in which a victim has been strangled.
13. Responsibility of an officer to provide
				written instructions to a victim concerning the victim's right to obtain a
				protection from abuse order and the procedures involved. This must include a
				mechanism for professional language access services if the victim's English
				proficiency is limited.
14.
				Responsibility of an officer to provide the victim with instructions on how to
				contact the local domestic violence resource center and a brief description of
				their services, as well as information about a relevant culturally specific
				domestic violence organization in appropriate circumstances.
15. Requirement and procedures for an officer
				to meet with the victim within 48 hours of all domestic violence incidents to
				check on safety and well-being of the victim and ensure the defendant's
				adherence with any bail conditions, protection orders, or other court
				orders.
16. A reporting process for
				detailed documentation of the incident and any charges. This report must
				include arrest and count tracking numbers (ATN/CTN).
17. Procedures to ensure expeditious service
				of both temporary and permanent protection from abuse orders, including a
				provision that service of a temporary order must be attempted within 48 hours
				of receiving the order from the court. Such procedures shall include a
				provision that pre-service notification to the defendant should not be employed
				as a default approach. This includes entering service information into the
				METRO system without unnecessary delay.
18. Procedures to ensure that the serving
				officer make a good faith effort to determine whether the defendant possesses
				any firearms and to take any firearms that are in the defendant's possession in
				all cases in which a protection from abuse order requires firearms to be
				relinquished to law enforcement. Such procedures shall include a provision that
				the serving officer must not facilitate transfer of firearms to someone other
				than law enforcement in all cases in which a protection from abuse order
				requires firearms to be relinquished to law enforcement.
19. Requirement that, in all cases in which a
				protection from abuse order requires firearms to be relinquished to law
				enforcement, any law enforcement officer to whom firearms are relinquished file
				a notice of relinquishment (court form PA-024) with the court that issued the
				order within one business day of the order being served, and notifies the
				relevant law enforcement agency in any other jurisdiction where a defendant
				reports firearms to be located.
20.
				Recognition that a person who obtains a protection from abuse order cannot
				violate the order regardless of any action taken by that person; a protection
				from abuse order only constrains the defendant.
21. A requirement to enforce validated
				protection from abuse orders from other states and tribal courts pursuant to
				Article IV, Section 1 of the United States Constitution.
22. Procedures to ensure that a victim
				receives notification of the defendant's release on bail.
23. Procedures for the collection of
				information regarding the defendant that includes the defendant's previous
				history of domestic violence, the relationship between the defendant and the
				victim, and whether the alleged commission of a crime included strangulation, a
				sexual assault offense, stalking, current or past suicidality of the defendant,
				the name of the victim, and a process to relay this information to a bail
				commissioner before a bail determination is made.
24. Procedures for the safe retrieval of
				personal property belonging to the victim or the defendant that includes
				identification of a possible neutral location for retrieval, for the presence
				of at least one law enforcement officer during the retrieval, providing the
				option of at least 24-hour notice to each party prior to the retrieval, and
				that a good faith effort shall be made to accommodate all reasonable requests
				for law enforcement accompaniment in situations involving allegations of
				domestic abuse.
25. Requirement
				that an agency conduct a review of its compliance with all applicable
				provisions of this policy in the event that a victim of domestic abuse who
				resided in the agency's jurisdiction is killed or seriously injured during the
				time that any temporary or permanent protection from abuse order was in effect
				or if there had been past agency involvement related to interactions between
				the perpetrator and the victim. The review shall be conducted in consultation
				with an advocate as defined in
				16 M.R.S.
				§53-B(1) (A) from the
				Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence, and a sworn law enforcement officer
				designated or trained as a domestic violence investigator. The agency shall
				conduct the review and forward the report to the Domestic Violence Homicide
				Review Panel through the Office of the Attorney General within 6 months of the
				incident, and maintain a copy on file at its agency.
26. A provision that the agency shall provide
				a copy of the incident report or intelligence or investigative record
				information to the local domestic violence resource center for all calls
				involving domestic abuse, as permitted by
				16 M.R.S.
				§806(4), unless
				withholding the investigative record information is reasonably necessary to
				protect against the harms outlined in
				16 M.R.S.
				§804.
27. A requirement that officers comply with
				their agency policy.