Domestic violence increases
April 6, 2009
By J.B. Wogan
Police responded to a late-night call in late March regarding a man who police say was hitting his wife. It was an incident becoming all too familiar in Sammamish. The man admitted he had hit her with an open hand on her shoulder twice, according to police reports. In the same report, the woman said it was three times, once on the cheek, once on the shoulder, once on the leg.
Almost every week, Sammamish police file reports about domestic violence, and to the officer tasked with dealing with the cases, it appears to be getting worse.
“I feel like I’m a lot busier than I was last year,” said Detective Amy Jarboe of the Sammamish Police Department. Up until December 2008, Jarboe was part of a 10-person Domestic Violence Intervention Unit run by the King County Sheriff’s Department. The unit dissolved during budget cuts, and only Jarboe and two other detectives still specialize in domestic violence in the county.
“With the economy, as bad as it is right now, people are having financial issues and it ends up at home. I think we’re going to see a lot more of that,” Jarboe said.
Early 2009 data from the Sammamish Police Department suggests that Jarboe might be right: There were 22 fourth-degree assaults involving domestic violence in the first quarter of 2009.
That’s double the number of fourth-degree assaults involving domestic violence from the first quarter of 2008.
Sgt. Robert Baxter of the Sammamish Police Department said that the average number of fourth-degree assaults in 2009 is on pace to be one more case per month than in 2008.
Fourth-degree assaults aren’t a perfect measure of how many domestic violence cases have occurred, but they’re pretty good, according to Stacy O’Brien, administrative assistant for the police department.
Fourth-degree assaults are usually domestic violence cases, but they can be other types of disputes as well, O’Brien said.
The state defines domestic violence broadly to include crimes committed by one family member or household member against another. There isn’t a specific domestic violence crime, so police reports related to domestic violence are filed under a variety of names: fourth-degree assaults, violation of court order, harassment, threats, criminal trespass and vandalism, among others.
None of those reports account for times when officers respond to a family disturbance call, but the incident doesn’t qualify as a crime and doesn’t warrant an official report, according to Sgt. Robert Baxter.
A family disturbance might be a husband and wife yelling at each other, Baxter said.
Between January and March, police responded to 10 family disturbances, Baxter said. They made 22 arrests that were domestic violence-related fourth-degree assaults, and 15 other arrests that were related to domestic violence, he said.
There were another four cases related to domestic violence that didn’t result in an arrest, Baxter said.
Barbara Langdon, executive director of Eastside Domestic Violence Program, said her organization has noticed an increase in domestic violence in east King County.
“We’re getting more phone calls. We’re getting more people requesting shelters,” Langdon said.
Eastside Domestic Violence is a nonprofit agency that provides shelters for victims of domestic violence. Langdon said the agency has two shelters and one outreach program. There’s been so much demand for shelters that the agency has had to turn people away, Langdon said.
The ratio is about one out of every 18 women finds shelter in a given week, Langdon said.
The agency served 5,644 victims of domestic violence in 2007, according to Deanna Hobbs, a spokeswoman for Eastside Domestic Violence.
Langdon said there was nothing unusual about Sammamish compared to other parts of King County — whatever domestic violence issues are happening here are probably happening throughout the rest of the county.
Jarboe agreed.
“I think it’s important to know that there’s a lot more domestic violence out there than people realize or want to acknowledge,” Jarboe said. “It’s in every neighborhood. It’s in every economic class. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
Where to get help
Eastside Domestic Violence Program has a 24-hour crisis hot line for victims of domestic violence: 746-1940.
To reach Detective Amy Jarboe at the Sammamish Police Department, call 295-0770.*
Jarboe said that in emergency situations, if Eastside Domestic Violence Program doesn’t have shelter space, the city can find a safe place for domestic violence victims to stay.
Jarboe said that victims should try to identify when a situation is getting out of control and leave. As for the batterers, they should go to counseling or at least try to consult with a friend about the behavior and how to stop it.
Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com. To comment on this story, visit www.SammamishReview.com.
*This updated story corrects the telephone number of the Sammamish Police Department.
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