04-10-1995 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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^^NUTES OF THE ORONO PLAN^G ON DOMESTIC ABUSE SHELTERS HELD ON JANUARY 6, 1995 It was noted that the Mound and V anemsta Police may have had a policy of using Westonka even prioMo the 1990 procedtr mandate. Discussion ensued as to whether Orono s pohc.es ^rpr^edires are similar to tn .se of Mound and Minnetrista. or whether pr«edures are bemg foUowrdMabusd. noted that the law does no. specincally require Ore use of an She indicated that the law required immediate action and required that a policy be m place, but does noi require the use of a specific organization. Judoe Davidson indicated she had brought along some materials which she would leave related to domestic abuse laws She indicated the law defines what police departments are supposed o S^ “wLt happens if they don't follow their adopted procedures Doiice departments held accountable for enforcing their own policies. Judge Davidson mdicated that in any bureaucracy it takes time to deal with issues and the Depanment of Corrections migh not take any action unless there were complaints. I. was concluded that discussion on how die Orono Police Department is dealing with domestic abuse p .'icy would be suspended until the Police Department represenutive was available to COm''..yrnt. Cr-. -dint in the outline, Mabusth provided a list of the 20 shelters located throughout the stat^ larger populated areas. Planning Commission requested that this information be copiec 4 provided to them. Peterson questioned what the capacity of ^eltws sm ^ Minm .n’s 4 million-pius population as compared to the existmg capacity. Wci^ ,»d that in most areas demand greatly exceeded capacity. Judge Davidson indicated that Hennepin bounty handles more than 10,000 hearings for protection in any iust 100 beds in the City of Minneapolis. Judge Davidson also noted that Orders for Protection often result in placement of conditions on the abuser rather than the victim, such as the abuser to have no contact or stay away from the victim. The shelters do provide a safe p for victims when such orders are not complied with. Victims are at the highest time of abuse and the time a Protection Order is granted, that is the time dunng which victims are at greatest risk in need of safe housing. Many people find shelter with fmily through their own resources, but those that do not have those resources available need a plac to go on a generally short-term basis. <?rhroeder Questioned whether it would be possible to determine the number of people who don t me re~ other means of shelter and would make use of Westonka’s proposed shelter Judge Davidson replied that it is virmally impossible to come up with those ’ and that because no shelter exists, many victims will remain in the abusive situation because they don’t have another housing option. Greg Sichender indicated that with other shelters having to turn away 50% of ^ Lfy that there are numbers of victims not finding shelter. Webber agreed, ^ is likely that the majority of victims don’t find shelter and remam m abusive siwations. She referred to a recent news article regarding several women who had become murder victims a