WashCo gets grant to improve protection of domestic violence victims

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- A $750,000 grant from the US Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women will allow the Washington County Sheriff's Office to do more "than we ever have before."

Sheriff Caprice Massey told KOIN 6 News the 3-year grant "is going to provide a significant increase in safety to the victims and the entire Washington County community." The funding will "allow us to provide a much more expansive and critical service to our victims in Washington County for domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking than we ever have before."

Currently, the sheriff's office relies on an outside company to handle their ankle monitoring system, which doesn't allow for monitoring results in real time, Massey said.

Deputies currently "respond to alerts the next day. But this grant will provide the ability "to have them right here and access to all of our partners."

The county knew it had to do better than it was, but needed the money to make a change.

Two years ago, a man charged with domestic violence against his wife was released with an ankle monitor awaiting his trial. A month later, police said, he entered his wife's home, then shot and killed her, her sister and then himself.

A lawsuit claims his monitor failed to track him.

"Well, that case that resulted in tragedy," Massey said. "The person who was the offender, they were not being monitored 24 hours a day. And so we found that it would be critical for us to now set up a system that will allow that greater monitoring for everyone in our community. That safety is just going to be critical."

The evidence-based risk assessment tool will evaluate the appropriate level of monitoring for each case of domestic violence across all 12 law enforcement agencies in the county.

The new system will be run by jail staff around the clock.

"A jail deputy is going to get an alert right there while they're monitoring, and they're going to be able to contact dispatch to get a deputy or a local police officer dispatch to that immediately," the sheriff said.

The grant money will also go towards a better way to determine how likely it is an offender will cause trouble while awaiting trial and will additionally fund the development of a county-wide training program on domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking.

This three-year grant is just a start to get the programs up and running. Massey said they will have a pilot version starting as soon as October.