The scene of a domestic violence disturbance doesn't always make sense right away, law enforcement officers say.
When an officer answers a domestic violence call, the mania of the moment can turn the roles of the two parties upside-down.
"Sometimes the aggressor will be the calmest person at the scene because the individual who has been attacked is going to be more frantic," said Sgt. Dennis Mitchell of the Greenwood Police Department.
A new Mississippi law requires law enforcement to determine who is threatening whom at the scene of a domestic violence case. The law, which took effect July 1, protects officers who make a domestic violence arrest based on their own discretion, as long as they use "good faith."
Mitchell and the Police Department hosted a training session Thursday on how to dissect the scenes of domestic violence and sexual assault cases. Officers from Itta Bena, Tchula, Goodman and other departments attended the class, conducted by the Salvation Army's Catherine Booth Domestic Violence Center.
Upon arriving at a house where the disturbance has occurred, an officer should relay pertinent information about the scene, separate the parties involved, then make the arrest, said David James, a state criminal investigator with the 11th Circuit district attorney's office in Cleveland.
Most importantly, he said, "know who the aggressor is. Separate the threat from the victim."
That sometimes requires a good bit of reverse logic on the part of the officer, according to Greenwood Capt. Henry Purnell.
"A lot of times you go out to the scene, and the female is more aggressive than the male is, when she's the one who called the police," he said. "But, you know, things change."
The circumstances of those cases often defy gender stereotypes, too, said Brenda Mitchell, an assistant district attorney in Bolivar County.
"We always think of women as the victims, but we've got men who are victims, too," she said. "We've got some ladies who are really tearing men apart."
Sometimes both parties are aggressive. In that case, the officer should arrest them separately, James said. "Don't let them know both are going to jail at the same time."
The officers at the seminar voiced their frustration at the difficulty of resolving domestic violence cases. The victims, compelled by their emotions, tend to take back the loved one who threatened them, the officers said. Prosecuting domestic violence is usually difficult, Brenda Mitchell said, because passion and emotion tend to cloud reason.
"We've had a couple of men who had been assaulted, and they wouldn't prosecute their wives," she said.
Nevertheless, she said, officers should leave that part up to the court and address disturbances as they arise. She emphasized the importance of the impact law enforcement makes with the parties involved. "They rely on you all to keep them calm whether you know it or not."
The officers also told of cases where they couldn't find a place to send children and vulnerable adults left alone after a domestic disturbance. The Department of Human Services is the obvious choice, James said.
But while DHS can take in children right away, finding refuge for adult doesn't happen overnight.
"It's a long drawn-out process," said Daisy Holt, a DHS area supervisor for social work. "We have to go through the attorney general's office and turn in paperwork to DHS in Jackson."
Tondra Bradley, the rape crisis coordinator for the Catherine Booth Center, recommended calling her office in Cleveland. The center runs a four-unit apartment complex that offers refuge for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.
