Q: What are the legal requirements for police reporting on spousal abuse? Is it different for counties? Is it mandatory reporting, or is it at the police staff’s judgment?
—Jackie Graves, Grayson
Q: When a police officer responds to a domestic violence call, his first responsibility is to make sure that everyone is safe, Ryan Powell, the director of the Operations Division of the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council, told Q&A on the News.
“The officer must determine if a crime has been committed by one or both parties of the dispute,” Powell said. “If the officer has probable cause to believe that an act of family violence has occurred, he should proceed to arrest the primary aggressor and secure a warrant for a specific charge citing the Family Violence Act or other appropriate criminal law.”
Officers are trained in crisis intervention steps to decide whether to mediate, refer the people to another agency or arrest someone, Powell said.
“It is possible that (an officer) may choose a combination of these choices,” he said.
Local agencies likely have different policies about whether an officer must write a report when he responds to a domestic violence call that he deems unfounded.
However, there will be a record of the 911 call and who was dispatched to the scene.
Allison Floyd with Fast Copy News Service wrote this column. Do you have a question about the news? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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