Local opinion: Update on domestic violence projects

As the Judge who presides over Tucson City Court Domestic Violence Court (DV Court), I wanted to take some time to talk about the efforts we are making throughout Pima County, with great partners, to make domestic survivors and their families safe, and to engage offenders to work towards change. Our work includes the Fatality Review Committee, the Risk Assessment Workgroup, and the Court’s Firearms Project. We were able to get these projects going again by working with Emerge Center Against Domestic Abuse. As everyone knows, Emerge engages with justice system and community partners all over Pima County — they are the biggest community-based agency providing comprehensive services to survivors of domestic violence in the county. They have clients in misdemeanor courts, felony court, family court and juvenile court, along with many survivors who have no connections to cases currently in the justice system. They continually engage with the community to improve family safety and offender accountability.

Working with Emerge, we have started the Fatality Review committee again. Our multidisciplinary group reviews cases of domestic violence that resulted in fatalities or near-fatalities and examine how we can learn lessons from these tragedies to improve our system response to these types of cases. Emerge and DV Court have also revived the Risk Assessment workgroup, making sure that system partners countywide meet to understand where training is needed on our domestic violence risk assessment instrument, which is used in both felony and misdemeanor domestic violence cases. We talk about breakdowns in communication about the risk assessment; and ensure that judges and other partners understand the value and limitations of the instrument.

DV Court received an FTAP grant (Firearms Technical Assistance Project) from the Justice Department, Office of Violence Against omen, and we have been working to improve the processes to ensure that offenders who are ordered to turn in firearms in domestic violence cases are held accountable. Our working group on the FTAP grant include Emerge, the United States Attorney’s Office, Goodwill Industries of Southern Arizona, the Tucson City Prosecutors Office, the City of Tucson Public Defenders Office, private defense attorneys from many courts, Tucson Police Department, Pima County Sheriff’s Department, University of Arizona Survivor Support Services, Tucson Indian Center, Pascua Yacqui Prosecutor’s office, DV Court at Justice Court, ASU Family Violence Center, Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault, Promotoras Rompiendo Cadenas YWCA, and Pima County Adult Probation. We invited partners who we believed would be accountable and who had the capacity and willingness to work on this important venture.

The presence of firearms is a true risk factor in domestic violence cases, and under Arizona law, it is hard to enforce court orders regarding firearms. We focus on high-risk cases (since 2021, Tucson City Court has been handling over 200 declined felony cases from the County Attorney’s office every year — cases that often involve strangulation, firearms, and stalking), and crafting orders to make sure that offenders turn in any firearms and cannot retrieve them until the case is concluded. If convicted and put on any kind of domestic violence probation, the offender remains a prohibited possessor until their probation is terminated, and they could be prosecuted for a felony. Additionally, our work is focused on defendants who are served protective orders where firearms are ordered to be transferred. The Tucson Police Department and Chief Kasmar have been amazing partners, along with the US Attorney’s Office and Emerge, as we work to make these important changes to enforce court orders on firearms.

Along with our focus on survivor safety, we are also talking about constitutional rights, making sure that our orders and instructions are easy to comply with, and take much counsel from the defense attorneys in our group. We pinpoint our efforts on cases that appear to be high-risk, but also have the additional goal of working with the police agencies to safeguard the firearm — which can be an expensive investment or a family heirloom — while the offender is not allowed to possess them.

None of this work would be possible without the contributions and tireless work of Emerge Center Against Domestic Abuse — countywide work that they do daily for survivors all over our community.