Domestic Violence Data Findings ‘Inconsistent’

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Columbia, S.C. (WOLO) — Tuesday morning, Governor Nikki Haley’s Domestic Violence Task Force met to discuss the findings of their data collection phase. After reviewing the data, Governor Haley called the findings surprising and inconsistent. “I think there’s a lot of things at night that worry me about domestic violence, but what really worries me now is the inconsistency that a victim in one county may be treated different than in another county, that bothers me,” explained Governor Haley. The data collected by 3 separate divisions of the task force showed inconsistencies in several areas, including how first offense cases are handled differently in each county and how officers respond to criminal domestic violence cases. A survey conducted by the Criminal Justice Division found that while more than 97-percent of responding agencies have policies and procedures for CDV cases, almost 50-percent of those surveyed do not follow a check-list. “What we saw was counties are all reporting domestic violence differently, law enforcement officers identify it differently, and how that’s reported to the state is all very different. ” said Governor Haley. Bryan Stirling, Chair of the Criminal Justice Division, explained the findings demonstrate a need for more uniform practices. “Just because the officer does not report things, that is not a reflection of the officer, that could be a training problem,” said Stirling. Moving forward, officials said they are looking for uniformity and consistency statewide, beginning with education prevention all the way to how cases are prosecuted. In the meantime, the Governor said she is confident domestic violence is an issue South Carolina can and will fix. The next report from each division is due to the Governor August 6th.