A system is only as good as the people who use it. 

Two domestic violence tools the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office unveiled three years ago provide the kind of information that could save the lives of victims and the officers who respond, law enforcement leaders say. 

But challenges remain. Adding an incident into the Mississippi Domestic Violence Registry is double the work: One report goes to  the law enforcement department and one goes to the system, said Luke Thompson, former chief of the Byram Police Department who trains officers about how to respond to domestic violence. 

Officers have used the system and the Mississippi Protective Order Registry, but the attorney general’s office is hoping for better participation. 

Thompson and Oxford Police Chief Jeff McCutchen recognize how situations can turn deadly for victims and law enforcement during domestic violence calls. The Officer Down Memorial, a nonprofit that tracks line-of-duty deaths, found that in nearly every state since 1992, officers have died while responding to domestic violence calls. 

Just this year, Missisisppi officers have been killed during domestic violence calls. 

In February, Hinds County Deputy Sgt. Martin Shields Jr. was shot and killed by a man who had shot his own wife and another woman in Terry. The man later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. McComb Police Sgt. Jason Blake died in August while responding to an off-duty request where a man shot and injured a woman before fatally shooting Blake and himself.  

When they are training officers within their department or around the state, leaders like McCutchen and Thompson are able to share how every piece of information they add to the registries can help keep them, other law enforcement officers and the public safer. 

“The more data that you have at your disposal in real time, the better decision you can make and the better outcomes that can come,” said McCutchen, whose department has been using the incident registry since its launch. 

Access to information about prior incidents at the same address, by the same abuser and active protective orders could be used to help corroborate a victim’s story in live time, he said. 

It’s also a chance to build trust by showing victims that officers have prior information, that they can add the current incident to the system, and that if abuse happens again there or somewhere else, someone can look it up, McCutchen said.

Domestic violence prevention through intervention

Mississippi’s law enforcement departments and agencies often have separate systems specific to their local, county or state jurisdictions. Law enforcement can access and submit to federal systems such as the National Incident-Based Reporting System, but that system has limits and data collection only began in 2019. 

Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office used the same electronic platform many officers were already using for motor vehicle crashes, believing that familiarity would lead to more input of information. Her office also has been training officers on how to use the systems. 

As of Jan. 1, officers have logged about 5,400 incidents into the system, according to the attorney general’s office. 

Officers are asked to fill in basics like location and a narrative, but they can also include additional details, including whether children were present at the time, whether the victim is pregnant and diagrams that show any injuries, according to a user guide for the Domestic Violence Registry. 

A way to help prevent domestic violence incidents from turning deadly is through intervention. 

Within the domestic violence registry, the attorney general’s office added a lethality assessment, which is a tool to help determine a person’s risk of being injured or killed by a partner. Officers ask a series of questions to learn about abusive behavior. From there, they connect victims with domestic violence services. 

As chief, Thompson implemented domestic violence response training with domestic violence advocates and educators and used the lethality assessment. In 2018, the first full year of using the training and assessment, he said the department reduced the number of domestic response calls by over 30%. An additional 25% reduction happened the next year. 

The numbers made Thompson curious about what changed. What he found were fewer calls to the same addresses. He said that earlier intervention and referral of victims to service groups helped reduce calls in the future. 

To save additional time for officers, Thompson started an app that streamlines the lethality assessment and automates data sharing between law enforcement and their area domestic violence service provider. It’s currently used by several Mississippi law enforcement agencies, he said. 

Tracking protective orders

Another domestic violence-related system by the attorney general’s office is the Mississippi Protective Order Registry, which is among several statewide systems across the country. 

Through a federal system, the National Crime Information Center Protection Order File, law enforcement agencies and the military submit protection orders. 

Mississippi’s registry contains court-issued civil and criminal protective orders. These can be temporary or long-term orders a person  sought and a judge approved, or from a court-ordered protection in a criminal case. 

So far for this year, nearly 600 domestic abuse protection orders have been entered into the registry, according to the attorney general’s office. 

Clerks add full protective orders to the system. A number of players from the justice system, including judges, law enforcement and prosecutors, have access to the registry and can use it to tell if protective orders are being followed. 

Clerks fill in basic information such as conditions of the protective order and which judge approved it, according to a user guide for the order registry. Additionally, once law enforcement gives access, clerks can add updated bond conditions and case disposition information to incidents logged in the domestic violence registry. 

The domestic violence incident and protective order systems are not accessible to the public because they contain investigative law enforcement material and may involve an open investigation or ongoing litigation, according to the attorney general’s office.   

McCutchen, the Oxford chief, said the protective order registry is similarly helpful because it gives officers information. In some cases, that may be entire copies of protective orders detailing who is protected and the terms of the order to be followed. 

If someone is found to have violated the protection order – broken conditions of no abuse, no contact and distance from the protected person – police then could call the judge who issued the order, who may ask for the person to be brought to court. Violation of a protection order is a misdemeanor that can lead to up to six months in jail and/or a fine. 

A protective order database can be helpful in a community like Oxford, where people from Mississippi and other states attend school and visitors come for games and other events, McCutchen said. 

Thompson said if service providers or advocates know someone has a protective order, they can help the person make plans to stay safe. That could mean crafting an exit strategy, saving money for when they leave an abusive partner or getting a new cellphone. 

“How are we going to make this piece of paper effective for you?” he said about protective orders and assistance from a domestic violence organization. 

“You don’t just run,” Thompson said. “You have resources.”