State Department of Criminal Justice trainers visited Henderson Wednesday to conduct Henderson County’s first ever Domestic Violence Summit.
The wide-ranging program consisted of topics relating from the first moment a domestic violence incident is called into dispatch all the way through the criminal process, including needed assistance to a victim throughout.
Topics included:
- Domestic violence dynamics—power and control
- Investigation of domestic violence and strangulation and report writing
- Physiology of strangulation
- Kentucky laws and prosecution considerations
- Trauma informed interviewing
- Determining the dominant aggressor
- Defendants in the justice system
- Importance of collaboration
This holistic summit is needed locally, according to the executive director and co-founder of the Chloe Randolph Organization, Kristie Randolph, because in the past, the different agencies involved in bringing these incidents to court and beyond, didn’t always work together, or at least, they would do their part and hand it off to the next agency in the process.
Randolph said agencies are working better together now, but it’s still not where it needs to be, and in fact, it will never be perfect but can always improve.
She said the summit’s comprehensive nature will allow different agencies to understand the different and complex pieces of the process, thus allowing improvement system-wide.
Present at the summit were 75 attendees, including officials and employees from the Henderson County Attorney’s Office, Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, victim’s advocates for both prosecutorial offices, Henderson Police Department, Henderson County Sheriff’s Office, Kentucky State Police, 911-Dispatch, Henderson County Detention Center, the Chloe Randolph Organization, Oasis from Evansville and nurses.
One missing piece of the community’s assistance to domestic violence victims is a secure safe house, both Randolph and Henderson County Attorney Steve Gold say.
Many people in the community believe the Father Bradley Home for Women and Children fills that role, but it doesn’t because—for one reason—it has a listed address. Moving a victim there would endanger the other residents, Gold said.
Randolph stressed that making victims aware that they have help after an incident is one of the most important factors in the process because their self-esteem is often very low, which can potentially lead to suicide.
“We want to make sure they know they have support,” she said.
Gold said Lilith Buckman, who works in the county attorney’s office, has created a list of resources available to victims. It is available through a QR code on papers given to victims after an incident, which allows them to scan and get information they need on their phone, he said.
Randolph said domestic violence occurs in all areas of the county and within every demographic and she advised people to throw out stereotypes that it happens only in a certain section of town or segment of the population.
The summit is one event the local community is holding as part of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, which occurs in October. There are also purple ribbons adorning the downtown area, and purple cutouts of people are set up on the lawn of the Henderson County Courthouse with facts about domestic violence accompanying them.
The Chloe Randolph Foundation also held an Evening of Remembrance for Domestic Violence Awareness on Saturday at Bally’s in Evansville.
