The second memory, the satisfying one, happened at my first agency. At some point in my early career, Georgia did something sensible for once and passed OCGA 17-4-20.1, a law that overhauled domestic violence response by law enforcement.
Historically, domestic violence was treated as a pain in the ass by responding cops. Cops got attacked at DV scenes; there’s a whole body of policy around safely responding to a DV call. And no one wants to be stuck in the middle of two partner’s heated argument.
And a whole lot of misogynistic attitude, yes. A lot of DV calls ended with no one going to jail, both parties in the same house. Or, “One of you has to stay somewhere else tonight.” Or, “If I have to come back here tonight, I’m gonna arrest both of you.” And even if the abused spouse agrees to press charges and it’s cut and dried- a lot of the time she will back out and refuse to testify. For a lot of complicated reasons- afraid of losing the support, sure he’ll change his mind, all of the reasons that an abused person will choose because of their situation; and this can be fatal to the case. 17-4-20.1 took a lot of that ambiguity away.
And that made this story one of the best moments of my career.
We are now late 1990s. The University had married housing units for students, set up as brick-and-cinderblock apartment blocks. “Charlie-1” and “Charlie-2”, in our radio code. Hm. Quasi-military indeed… and initially unintentionally racist; but that’s a story for another time.
ANYway, Family Housing rarely gave the police any trouble. Maybe a burglary every few months; maybe an odor complaint. But domestic violence calls… those were more frequent. And one evening, I get dispatched to a 911 hangup, domestic, physical. Code 3, arrive with backup to find both parties separated. Wife is clearly terrified; bruised face, holes in the drywall, broken items on the floor, bedroom door damaged. Husband is a little bigger than me; angry, scratches on face. We get husband and wife separated, away from sources of weapons, etc.
I get husband’s story first. They had an argument, see, and she clawed his face, and he pushed her away, and she hit the door and that’s how she got those bruises.
Yeah. A lot of times it IS just like those cop dramas. I swap with my backup and get her story. She is still shaky. She says they had an argument, he got loud and physical, throwing plates and pictures; she ran for the bedroom and he smashed her face into the door. He stalked off and she called 911.
What 17-4-20.1 did that I greatly appreciated in this instance was state that if police could identify the primary aggressor in a DV case, they could arrest them and be the charging entity. And it was pretty clear here who was the primary aggressor; it couldn’t be clearer.
I put the husband in handcuffs. He didn’t protest too much; he knew his story was shit. But he was still trying to think his way out of this. As I drove him to the jail, in the back seat, he was silent. After a few minutes he pipes up- “Say, officer… if she don’t press charges, I go free, right?”
I knew what he had in mind. Bail out, slap her ass around until she agrees to drop the charges; the cycle begins again. But by making the arresting officer the charging entity, the State didn’t need the wife to testify.
I looked at him in the rear-view mirror and said (probably paraphrased to make me sound more movie-hero dramatic):
“No. She’s not pressing charges. I am. And I’m not going to drop them.”
Probably one of the best soundbites from my career. And most definitely the best moment.
