All aspects of domestic violence pose threats to officers, witnesses, and victims. Be ever alert on the original call, stand-by requests, court hearings, and most certainly, during every full custody arrest and transport. Consider the following tactics to keep safe on DV calls.
1. Finding the Violator
After investigating a domestic where the perpetrator has left the scene, don’t just nonchalantly exit the residence, assuming the suspect is long gone.
“Suspect has left the scene,” often means, “Suspect is watching you from the shadows.”
In many cases the suspect has taken a position of concealment outside the scene to:
• Just watch
• Wait for you to leave and then return to let the beatings resume
• Ambush officers who have responded to help
• Wait for you to leave to return and begin the ‘honeymoon phase’ of the domestic violence
Leave quietly and unexpectedly from the rear entrance. Let your eyes adjust to the darkness from a place of cover and scan the scene, looking for the suspect on foot or in a parked car.
After making a visible show of leaving, consider returning covertly to maintain a surveillance of the area from a concealed position. Often you will be able to make an apprehension as the abuser returns to the home to resume their reign of terror or make amends.
2. Making Follow-up Visits
When charges are pending against the suspect who has left the scene after a domestic, consider checking to determine if an arrest has been made upon returning to work on your next shift. If no arrest has been made, remember no one knows the case and the scene better than you. Get some back-up and check back at the residence when time permits on your subsequent shifts. Often you will find that the suspect has returned.
3. Getting Permission to Search
Approach cautiously and quietly and listen outside the door for conversation and other signs of the suspect’s presence. Do not make this contact alone.
Upon making contact with the victim watch the body language of the victim as you ask if the suspect is there. Often there will be many verbal clues of deception as they say, “They are not here.”
Sometimes they will actually motion subtly back into the house as they claim they are alone in the house. A dead giveaway that does not rise to the level of probable cause is when they block the doorway with their arm as they talk to you.
Even though the spouse will lie about the presence of the wanted spouse, they will often give officers permission to search of the house. Use extreme caution on this search.
Do not become a victim of a domestic violence call.
