June 1, 2011

HOUSE OKS BILL TO STEM DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

State Rep. Jason Rojas hailed the House of Representatives’ unanimous approval Wednesday of legislation he co-sponsored that strengthens Connecticut’s laws against domestic violence and enhances its assistance to victims.

“This bill is a continuation of the work that was begun during my first term and I am proud that we were able to move this legislation through the House in a bi-partisan manner,” Rojas said.

“The legislation (HB 6629) makes a number of significant changes to current law. Most importantly, it requires law enforcement officers to arrest a person who commits a family violence crime against someone he or she is dating,” Rojas said.

The bill improves the state’s response to domestic violence in a number of ways, including strengthening access to restraining and protective orders, improving information sharing between state agencies, facilitating victims’ access to services, providing law enforcement with the tools they need to protect our communities and requiring the judicial branch to look at long-term solutions, Rojas said.

“We have all seen the terrible incidences of domestic violence over the past couple of years and we must continue to work to improve our state's ability to mitigate domestic violence as well as work to adequately respond to it,” Rojas said.

The legislation expands the ability of victims who have experienced a pattern of threatening or stalking to request a restraining order, and clarifies that people of any age, including teens, can request a restraining order to protect them from a partner who has subjected them to abuse.

The bill also fixes a contradiction in state law that currently exempts people in dating relationships from arrest when a domestic violence crime is committed, so that police have clear authority to make such arrests.

“We have seen a lot of progress since the Tracey Thurman law in 1986, but tragically domestic violence continues to plague families in each one of our communities,” House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan (D-Meriden) said. “One of our priorities is to strengthen the response of law enforcement to domestic violence and develop a statewide law enforcement model policy that articulates best practices, for example, for responding to violations of restraining and protective orders.”

The task force heard concerns about a lack of timely response from law enforcement to restraining order violations. To improve response time, courts will be authorized to issue a standing post-trial criminal protective order for certain offenses against children, which will promote more timely and lawful arrests of those in violation.

This legislation will improve access to domestic violence services by requiring police officers to provide victims with information about their regional domestic violence program so they can obtain trauma-informed counseling and other emergency services.

It also creates a task force charged with developing a statewide law enforcement model policy that articulates best practices for police when responding to incidents of domestic violence, including a thorough examination of the state's “dual arrest” policy.

The bill will allow families of victims of domestic violence to receive restitution like that provided to families of other crime victims. It also requires offenders to surrender their firearms to police or sell them to a federally-licensed firearms dealer if the offender is barred from possessing them due to a restraining or protective order.

The bill also requires judicial branch staff to disclose to the state Department of Children and Families (DCF) information indicating if a defendant poses a threat to a child. It also permits judicial branch family relations counselors to disclose information about a defendant to pretrial programs to ensure they provide appropriate services and to adult probation officers to ensure appropriate sentencing.