Police Week
May 16 th through the 21 st is Police week. It is during this week that we reflect upon the importance of law enforcement and the essential role that officers play in our safety and protection. This is particularly true in regards to calls for service in a domestic violence situation. When an officer receives a call to a domestic violence incident, they are walking into the most emotionally charged and volatile situation relative to any other call they’ll receive. The officer must respond with very little information regarding the issue that gave rise to the dispute if any, the aggressor’s history and predisposition towards violence, whether weapons are present and/or what state he/she may find the victim in. In addition to this highly emotional state, drugs or alcohol are often involved, thus reducing an abuser's threshold for logical reasoning, creating a gravely dangerous state of affairs. According to the FBI in 2009, of the 5...