NEW AUDIT EXPOSES POLITICAL PRIORITIES--An audit just released by City Controller Ron Galperin reveals that LA’s domestic violence programs have been “underfunded, disjointed and inconsistent across City neighborhoods.”
The Controller’s report, released on October 1 to coincide with the beginning of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, shows that the “responsibility for combatting domestic violence in Los Angeles is divided among five entities – none of which has overall responsibility to coordinate services and programs.”
This may point to yet another serious problem with waste and inefficiency in the City – one that has a direct effect on the victims of abuse whose lives are in imminent danger.
Looking at statistics for the past five years, Galperin’s audit shows that while domestic violence has increased in the City (up 5% so far this year), per capita spending on domestic violence in Los Angeles is only $1.04, way below what is spent in other large cities such as San Francisco ($4.84) and New York ($12.75.) “As Controller, I typically don’t find myself advocating that more money be spent,” Galperin notes, “but in looking at how little we’ve spent on these programs, it’s clear that we need to make domestic violence response more of a priority and commit more money to it.”
The Controller’s audit states that “police respond to an average of 48,088 domestic violence calls each year – an average of 131 calls each day. On average, 10 people are killed in domestic violence-related violence incidents each year. Fourteen were killed in 2014, the most in six years.”
At a press conference on October 1, Mayor Eric Garcetti voiced his determination to allocate more money and manpower to assist victims and survivors of domestic violence. Presumably, this will be on top of a commitment he made back in January to make an extra $1 million in public/private funding available for the city’s Domestic Abuse Response Teams (DART) which had only been operating in 10 LAPD Divisions over its years in existence. The Mayor just announced on Monday, October 5 that his goal to expand the DART program to all 21 LAPD geographic divisions by the end of 2015 has finally been achieved.
The DART program coordinates response from specially trained officers and other advocates to provide victims and survivors of domestic violence needed intervention and support, including transportation, emergency shelter and making a safety plan. According to the LA Times, LAPD admits that advocates have historically only been able to respond to 1 out of 30 domestic abuse calls.
The Controller’s data shows that, over the audit period, 27% of the city’s domestic abuse cases were misclassified, resulting in an underreporting of abuse. In 2013 alone, there were 14,112 cases of domestic violence, yet only 10,184 were reported by the LAPD. According to the LA Times, “The LAPD has since created the Data Integrity Unit, which will centralize how police reports are categorized.” It quotes LAPD Cmdr. Kevin McCarthy as saying that “this will eliminate a lot of the errors that were made in the past.” McCarthy further noted that “the agency’s response to domestic violence calls has changed dramatically in recent decades. At one time, the strategy was ‘to keep the peace’ … But it’s not that way anymore. We do investigations, we take photos, people go to jail. It’s serious business.”
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The LA Times further points out that Mayor Garcetti has moved forward on a plan to create a “domestic violence working group, made up of city employees. Each department will be asked to appoint a liaison to raise community awareness of the city’s prevention and intervention services.”
Garcetti has directed city officials to open three family justice centers for the coordination of law enforcement, medical, social and legal services available for domestic abuse victims and survivors. The only such center that exists today is the Valley Crisis and Recovery Services (CARES) Family Justice Center (FJC) in Van Nuys, created in 2009 through a grant from the California Emergency Management Agency (Cal EMA.)
A report issued by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, calls domestic violence the third leading cause of homelessness among families -- a significant fact for Los Angeles, given the recent “State of Emergency” declared to address the City’s severe homeless crisis.
The Controller has made continuing efforts to actually track, quantify, and release to the public how our City allocates its resources. Tackling this issue has been a good step forward. All citizens of Los Angeles – but especially adults and children victimized by domestic violence -- deserve to have this critical issue addressed and solved.
(Linda Abrams is Associate Editor at CityWatch.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 81
Pub: Oct 06, 2015
