SANTA CRUZ COUNTY

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE COMMISSION

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT/ANNUAL REPORT COMMITTEE

 

MINUTES

 

Meeting Date: October 1, 2002 11:00 – 1:30 PM

Location: Commission for the Prevention of Violence Against Women (CPVAW)

915 Cedar Street

Santa Cruz, CA  95060

 

  1. Call to Order
    Chair Laurie McWhorter called the meeting to order at 11:10 AM. Alan Hiromura, David Rabow, Kim Austin and Paula Gammell were present.

 

  1. Additions or Deletions to the Agenda
    None.

 

  1. Oral Communications from the Community
    David Rabow contacted Kate Killeen, Director for the Violence Against Women Prosecution Project, regarding collecting statistics and determined it is a chronic challenge.  It is impossible to maintain accurate statistics without one individual inputting the various agencies information.  Therefore we’re going to have global numbers.

 

  1. Approval of the August 29, 2002 minutes.
    Minutes were approved with the change of spelling in the word Access.

 

  1. Review and revise questions created by committee members.

 

Law Enforcement Questionnaire:

 

·        The questionnaire will be titled Law Enforcement Agency and leave a blank space for the month to be inserted. 

·        It was unanimously decided to change questions 2-5.  It was originally designed to collect data on the total numbers per felony or misdemeanor.  These will now reflect the various DV Penal Code charges, such as, 273.5, 243(e)(1), etc., for questions 2-5.   

·        The age categories in Question 7 will be changes to remain constant throughout the various agency questionnaires.

·        Question 8 was eliminated in its entirety.

 

 

Medical Questionnaire:

 

The medical questionnaire will now be titled County Health Department questionnaire regarding Medically Mandated Reports.

 

 

District Attorney’s Office (DAO) Questionnaire:

 

·        David Rabow is going to re-write the questionnaire with Alan Hiromura redeveloping the data sheet.

·        David Rabow is going to verify if the DAO maintains information on SAP and Kids in Common on cases that were not filed.

·        Questions 2-10 were identified to be redundant and eliminated.  This information will be determined by the Law Enforcement questionnaire.

·        David Rabow is going to follow-up and determine if the DAO tracks race, gender and age in their stats.

 

 

Court Questionnaire:

 

·        Questions 2-7 are to be demographic specific which in turn eliminates questions 8, 9 and 10.

·        Question 11 was eliminated

·        Question 12 and 13 will result in global numbers only

·        Question 14: demographic related

·        Question 15 will address custody days as follows:

o       Less than 5

o       6-30

o       31-60

o       61-180

o       181 - 365

 

Probation Questionnaire:

 

·        Questionnaire will be titled Domestic Violence Unit Questionnaire.

·        Question 2 was modified and will now ask: Of these new DV Probationers, how many have prior DV related convictions in Santa Cruz County.

·        Question 5 will now read: How many probation were terminated from batterer’s programs this month?

 

Education Questionnaire:

 

·        Questionnaire to be eliminated.

 

Child Protective Services Questionnaire:

 

·        A questionnaire will be forwarded to CPS with the question:

o       Number of children living in home where violence occurred.

 

 

 

 

Other:

 

·        The Shelter questionnaire is eliminated in its entirety.

 

Data Collecting and Spreadsheet:



·        Alan Hiromura will redesign the spreadsheet for the District Attorney’s Office.  The new spreadsheet will list the various law enforcement agencies across the top with the DAO questions going downward.

 

  1. Draft cover letter to go with unveiling

 

·        David Rabow is going to draft a cover letter.

·        The letter will indicate that no juvenile offenders are included in data collection.

·        Responses from the various agencies are requested to be submitted by October 30, 2002.

·        The letter will ask:

o       The agencies if the conceptual information appears complete and if they can share their information.

o       Does the system have the capability of doing this.

o       Line staff: are questions understood and would it result in uniform entries.

 

  1. Continue implementing plan of action

·        David Rabow will draft the cover letter.

·        Laurie McWhorter will Xerox the letters to be given to the various agencies.

·        Agency responses are due by 10/30/02. 

 

  1. Announcments

None.

 

  1. Schedule next meeting
    November 4, 2002 at the District Attorney’s Office

November 7, 2002 at the District Attorney’s Office

 

  1.  Closing
     Completed

 

  1.  Official adjournment
     The Chair adjourned the meeting at 1:30 PM.