Honolulu and Kauai police have begun using a nationally recognized domestic violence assessment protocol to help prevent murders and get immediate help for victims at risk of being killed.

Both police departments launched what is formally known as the Lethality Assessment Program this summer, creating the most structured law enforcement response to domestic violence incidents in the state, said Janelle Oishi of the Hawaii State Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Oishi said the program creates a consistent law enforcement response in the handling of domestic violence cases and gives officers clear parameters for helping victims. A key element of the program is a 24-hour hotline that police can call to connect the victim to a domestic vio- lence advocate. On Oahu, Child &Family Service runs the hotline.

The program consists of an 11-question screening tool to identify victims at risk of being killed by an intimate partner.

An officer responding to a domestic violence incident will read the questions to the victim. If the victim answers certain questions or a certain number of questions in the affirmative, the officer will call the 24-hour hotline and ask the victim to speak with a domestic violence advocate who is trained to respond to someone in crisis and at high risk of being killed.

The advocate can also provide safety training, services and shelter referrals.

The program, based on the research by Jackie Campbell, a pioneering researcher in domestic violence, is already being used in more than 30 states. It has also garnered national recognition from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women.

The Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence created the program as a strategy to prevent domestic violence homicides, and it trains law enforcement and other agencies, at no cost, to use the program.

Oishi said the state Coalition Against Domestic Violence has been working since 2014 to bring the program to Hawaii to “really strengthen law enforcement’s response to the safety of survivors.”

“We’re really trying to get the most vulnerable population immediately into appropriate services,” she said, adding that research shows domestic violence services increase victims’ safety.

The director of systems and communities for the coalition, Oishi said the organization learned about the Lethality Assessment Program in 2014, although not in response to any specific event. Hawaii island and Maui police declined to participate.

Nationally, she said, one in four women will experience physical abuse.

According to the state attorney general’s office, Hawaii had 46 domestic abuse-related murders from 2008 through 2012, making up about 39 percent of the state’s murders during that time.

Honolulu police Maj. Larry Lawson, of the Criminal Investigation Division, said patrol officers across the island have been using the assessment protocol since July 1.

He said Honolulu police adopted a policy that requires officers to attempt to read the screening questionnaire to victims in a domestic violence call. Victims have the right to decline to participate.

Reading the questionnaire can educate some victims about the warning signs that they may be killed in their relationship, he said.

Some questions, for example, ask whether the victim’s partner has ever threatened to kill him or her, whether the partner is constantly jealous, or whether the partner is unemployed.

“It just helps us convey the seriousness of domestic violence to that victim,” he said. “This gives us something to really speak to that victim and say, ‘You are in danger here, and we’re trying to help you.’”

Another benefit of the program, Lawson said, is it gets victims in touch with service providers early on, increasing the likelihood that they follow through with prosecution because they feel like “they have someone walking beside them from the beginning.”

He said the lethality assessment screening process takes only about 10 minutes to complete.

“We have high hopes that it’s going to save someone’s life,” he said.