More can be done to help abuse victims

Victims of domestic violence need help the most when they are at their lowest ebb and least likely to seek it out. Many are fearful of going down the road of prosecution and protection that starts with a police report.

The Honolulu City Council in January convened a Domestic Violence Response Task Force, partly driven by the chilling statistic that more than a third of murders committed statewide were linked to domestic violence.

Clearly what Honolulu needs is a more deeply developed system of outreach, which is precisely what the task force recommended in a recent preliminary report.

There are barriers to prosecuting these crimes when the victim won’t step forward, the task force noted, so society needs other ways to help that victim.

Even those who do call police sometimes don’t get the full range of support they need. The Council was rightly motivated to launch the task force by one, now-notorious episode in particular.

Last September, a witness video recorded an off-duty sergeant hitting a female acquaintance in a Waipahu restaurant. The responding officers failed to open a police report on the matter, and the sergeant was not charged by the grand jury.

HPD must shoulder its own burden to improve how it handles domestic violence. An internal investigation on the case that’s still underway ought to yield a report that’s made public.

But as the task force concluded in its report, other steps can be taken to sharpen the broad public and private response:

» A strategic plan would help overcome the tendency of all actors to work in "silos," improving collaboration and communication among government agencies and community organizations.

» Once again, the shortcomings of government data collection and sharing were cited as a factor in that lack of coordination. That’s not going to turn around quickly, so workarounds will be needed to strengthen the overall outreach system.

» Among the ideas modeled by other states is the development of a shared matrix for assessing risk, guidance that all agencies should share. This tool would be especially critical in processing temporary restraining orders more effectively.

» One way to improve response would be to identify additional "points of entry" for victims, beside the criminal justice system. Professionals in health care and educational institutions and other parts of the community need better training to intervene when a victim of domestic violence is identified.

» In addition to increasing resources for counseling victims and witnesses, the most crucial need is for a statewide prevention program, including education, research and community outreach.

Police Maj. Larry Lawson, who heads HPD’s Criminal Investigation Division, said the findings will help the department improve its work with victims advocacy groups.

"We both want the same thing, which is to help the victim and stop the violence," he said.

That is what everyone wants; better coordination is what’s needed. The shared goal is to make Honolulu a place that’s more responsive to domestic violence victims who otherwise are suffering in silence.