By Bryan Johnson, KOMO TV4 NEWS
TACOMA, Wash. -- The Tacoma Police Department says new policies on police hiring on domestic violence and requirements for reporting domestic violence will go into effect on Feb. 23.
The new 21-page policy was drafted by a citizens’ committee, which included representatives of the police department, victims’ advocates, domestic violence specialists and included input from police departments and domestic violence agencies across the country.
The new rules are a direct outgrowth of the murder-suicide involving former Tacoma police chief David Brame and his wife Crystal on April 26, 2003 in Gig Harbor. There have been suggestions that that the police department did not adequately investigate Brame before he was named chief and did not pay sufficient attention to allegations of domestic violence in divorce papers filed by Crystal Brame.
Crystal’s father, Lane Judson, told KOMO 4 News, that when his daughter was in a coma at Harborview Medical Center, he held her hand and promised he would do his best to ensure that there would be police domestic violence policies in effect across the country.
He said Thursday the action of the city of Tacoma is the first step. He is still pushing for statewide domestic violence policies with an eventual goal of federal legislation.
He said that when he was holding Crystal’s hand in the hospital, he got the idea of requiring police departments to have domestic violence polices in effect before they could qualify for any federal grants. He has already proposed such action in letters to several members of the Washington State Congressional Delegation.