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Domestic violence bill now law
Tacoma: Locke
signs first such legislation geared toward police
KENNETH P. VOGEL; The News Tribune
Published: March 17th, 2004 03:35
AM
Less than 11 months after Tacoma
Police Chief David Brame fatally shot his wife and himself, Gov. Gary Locke on
Monday signed a law making Washington the first state requiring law enforcement
agencies to enact policies for dealing with domestic violence by their own
officers.
Brame's wife, Crystal, alleged in
divorce papers filed in the months before the April 26 shootings that her
husband had abused her for years.
At Monday's signing ceremony at the
Tacoma YWCA, Locke said, "Her death left us with sobering and agonizing
questions: How could this have happened? And what can we do to prevent it from
ever happening again?"
The new law is a big step toward
that goal, said state Rep. Patricia Lantz (D-Gig Harbor).
Lantz, sponsor of a bill mirroring
the one Locke signed, worked with an ad-hoc committee of about 75 law
enforcement, civic and labor leaders, lawyers and domestic violence advocates
who spent months putting together the legislation.
"It was an extraordinary effort,"
Lantz said, "where we can say I think without question that out of the ashes of
a horrible, horrific tragedy, a phoenix did rise and it (took) the form of this
bill."
Senate Bill 6161 was one of four
addressing domestic violence that Locke signed. The ceremony was attended by a
host of lawmakers, Tacoma Police interim Chief Don Ramsdell, Mayor Bill Baarsma
and City Manager Jim Walton.
The Tacoma Police Department last
month adopted its own policy for so-called "officer-involved" domestic violence,
which Lantz said is more strict than the requirements in the new law.
Sponsored by Sen. Debbie Regala
(D-Tacoma), SB 6161 requires law enforcement agencies from the Washington State
Police down to the smallest municipal departments to adopt by June 2005 minimum
policies for handling police-involved domestic violence.
The requirements include:
•Screening applicants for past
involvement - or accusations of involvement - in domestic violence.
•Sharing information on such
incidents and accusations with other agencies.
•Offering counseling.
•Telling the person making the
domestic violence allegation how the investigation is going.
•Requiring officers to report when
one of their own is implicated in a domestic abuse situation.
•Requiring officers to report if
they have been or are being investigated for allegations of child abuse or
neglect, or if they are the subject of a restraining order.
Though the other three bills signed
Monday were not prompted by Crystal Brame's slaying, Lantz said after the
ceremony that the shootings spurred the Legislature to act.
"Often times, you make these quantum
leaps forward only when you're forced into action," Lantz said, pointing to a $2
million appropriation for domestic violence services included in the budget
lawmakers passed this month.
That's a 50 percent boost, said
Locke, adding that, "It will help anti-abuse programs across the state meet some
35,000 requests for help that could not be met last year."
Locke said the 54 women who died
last year in the state from domestic violence are "the tip of the
iceberg."
Domestic abuse is far more common
among police officers than in the general population, according to studies like
two published in the early 1990s that found at least 40 percent of police
officer families experience domestic violence.
Locke applauded the new laws, their
sponsors and others who worked on them.
However, he said, "The strongest
laws and unlimited funding will not prevent domestic violence or protect its
victims unless we are all committed to changing the values and attitudes in our
culture that allow this violence to flourish."
Kenneth P. Vogel:
360-754-6093
ken.vogel@mail.tribnet.com
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