NYPD cops ordered to run criminal checks on domestic-abuse victims

 

 

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/nypd_nab_the_victim_lXiQhecmrcMWX01cMEJ5JJ

• By JAMIE SCHRAM and DAN MANGAN
• Last Updated: 9:15 AM, March 15, 2013
• Posted: 1:15 AM, March 15, 2013

EXCLUSIVE

Women who report domestic violence are exposing themselves to arrest under a new NYPD directive that orders cops to run criminal checks on the accused and the accuser, The Post has learned.

The memo by Chief of Detectives Phil Pulaski requires detectives to look at open warrants, complaint histories and even the driving records of both parties.

“You have no choice but to lock them up” if the victims turn out to have warrants, including for minor offenses like unpaid tickets, a police source said.

“This is going to deter victims of domestic violence . . . They’re going to be scared to come forward.”

The directive tells detectives that when they are investigating cases of domestic violence, they should run a search that cross-references all NYPD databases.

Beside warrants, a person’s criminal record and history of making criminal complaints should be checked, the directive says.

A source said that even if detectives wanted to take pity on someone who was battered by a spouse, they would feel pressure to make an arrest to avoid getting in trouble with superiors.

“We have every right to arrest that person at that moment,” the source said.

Reacting to the March 5 memo, another source fumed, “There’s a lack of common sense in this department right now.”

Marilyn Chinitz, a matrimonial lawyer who often represents abused women, said the policy harms those police should be protecting.

“You’re arresting the victim?” Chinitz said. “That is crazy.

“That is very, very frightening. It would absolutely dissuade people. They would not report a crime because they would fear getting locked up.

“It would empower the perpetrator, and there’s going to be more domestic violence as a consequence, and you’re endangering children,” Chinitz said, noting that kids often live in households where one parent is being abused.

Joseph Tacopina, a defense attorney and former prosecutor, said the new policy will have a “massive chilling effect” on domestic-violence victims, particularly women reluctant to call cops on their partners.

“The majority of domestic-violence cases go unreported,” Tacopina noted. “This is just going to increase this percentage.”

Pulaski’s memo is the latest in nearly 90 instructional memos the former civil engineer and lawyer has issued to NYPD detectives since he was appointed their boss by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly in the fall of 2009.

Those memos range from the most mundane tasks to how to grill a suspect.