A benefit of the current structure is the change-making work that has organically developed from the process of case reviews within the Hennepin Domestic Fatality Review Team. Since all the members of the Team are in some way connected to community, justice or government systems that serve those who may become the perpetrator or victim of a domestic homicide, each member also brings a unique perspective on ways in which their agency’s work can prevent homicide.

The Domestic Fatality Review Team has published five previous reports in which we have identified recommendations for changes to system procedures that increase safety for victims and hold perpetrators accountable. After each of the reports, we document changes that were made in response to opportunities for intervention identified by the Team.   Additionally, some members of the Review Team, having identified a better way to keep victims safe and hold abusers accountable through case reviews, have taken the initiative to make more immediate changes within their organization.

Below you will find highlights of recent modifications to policy or practice that resulted from the findings of the Review Team. We also have recognized the important work of other organizations that have implemented changes to discourage domestic homicide, provide safety for victims and their children and hold abusers accountable for domestic abuse.

• The Hennepin County Family Violence Coordinating Council Criminal Committee formed a work group to study police, prosecutor and advocacy response to Gone On Arrival (GOA) cases. The GOA Best Practices Workgroup was formed in response to the recommendation of the Hennepin Domestic Fatality Review Team and Battered Women’s Justice Project to develop consistent GOA practices and encourage investigations of domestic cases. The GOA Best Practices Workgroup has just released their findings, Best Practices and Procedures for Police Departments with Regard to the Handling of Domestic Violence Gone on Arrival Cases.
• Hennepin County Community Corrections and Rehabilitation has developed a pilot position with a caseload of probationers with felony-level domestic assault. Previously, misdemeanor-level domestic assault offender had specialized probation officers while felony-level domestic assault offenders were supervised by a general felony probation officer. This pilot position offers the opportunity for more rigorous, specialized supervision by a probation officer who is trained and experienced in domestic violence issues.
• Minneapolis’ Misdemeanor Domestic Assault Investigation Pilot, a collaboration project of the Minneapolis City Attorney’s Office and the Minneapolis Police Department, which began on February 1, 2008 in the city’s 5th Precinct, expanded to the 3rd Precinct on February 1, 2009 and will expand to the other Minneapolis precincts by the end of 2009. During the first three quarters of the pilot project, the conviction rate for cases occurring in the 5th Precinct rose 23% from 54.4% in 2007 to 77.5% after the introduction of the protocol.
• Beginning in 2009, Hennepin County Community Corrections and Rehabilitation will implement a domestic abuse screening tool in the felony-level Pre-Sentence Investigation. This screening process had previously been used during misdemeanor Pre-Sentence Investigation and provides judges, prosecutors and probation officers with the  information they need to make well-informed decisions.
• In 2008, Hennepin County Community Corrections and Rehabilitation formed a group of employees who visit a variety of treatment facilities to which they refer clients to conduct audits of the services. This addresses the underlying concern in a 2007 Opportunity for Intervention: Criminal justice should beware of automatically referring to the least restrictive and lowest cost treatment options for sex offender services, domestic violence intervention services or chemical dependency treatment as they may not be the most effective.
• The Minnetonka City Attorney and police department collaborated to implement recommendations published by the Fatality Review Team; a shift from primary aggressor analysis to predominant aggressor analysis, the adoption of protocols requiring a speedy review of domestic assault police reports by a City Attorney for Gone on Arrival calls and the creation of a referral process to ensure that every documented incident of domestic violence is prosecuted at the appropriate level of severity.

While not the direct result of Review Team recommendations, one of the following changes directly addresses a Review Team recommendation from 2008: Every law enforcement agency should establish a protocol for determining the existence of an active Order for Protection or Domestic Abuse No Contact Order on every domestic assault call. Similarly, the efforts of HCMC to raise awareness of, and improve the medical response to, domestic violence are in line with several Review Team recommendations in previous years. People integral to these changes include current and former members of the Review Team.

• A recent legislative modification to the Order for Protection statute brought to light the absence of criminal court  Domestic Abuse No Contact Orders (DANCOs) in the police database, the CJIS. This database, which police use to access information from their squad cares, contained information about Orders for Protection it did not contain No Contact Orders made by the court as a condition of release. A work group was formed to determine how to make DANCO information accessible in CJIS. As a result of the working group findings, DANCOs issued after December 16, 2008, will be viewable by police in the CJIS database.
• Hennepin County Medical Center has implemented training for medical staff about legal and medical response to strangulation since a 2006 law made strangulation a felony offense, has developed and implemented a self- learning packet for RNs about domestic violence, has provided “Clues to Domestic Violence” cards to paramedics and ambulance crews and incorporated domestic violence and strangulation education into the core curriculum for medical residents at the hospital.