01011997 - Current Michigan Police Department OIDV Policies

In the late 1990's, under Michigan domestic violence laws, each police department in the state was required to have a domestic violence response policy. However, while these policies mainly focused on non-officer involved domestic violence, they barely touched on OIDV.

In this actual copy of the Monroe County Michigan Sheriff Department's domestic violence policy, fourteen pages are devoted to non-officer involved domestic violence, while only a paragraph is devoted to procedure and response to OIDV.

From page 13 of the Monroe County Michigan Sheriff Department Model Law Enforcement Domestic Violence Policy:

"When the victim or the assailant is a criminal justice system employee or public official, the supervisor will investigate to ensure that the response is properly documented and that departmental policy has been followed. Whenever possible, the supervisor will respond to and take charge of the scene."

1] OIDV department policies are not written by the Michigan AG's Office, but by each individual police department= policies differ from one department to the other.

2] If a police department is not serious about addressing OIDV= their policies are gong to reflect this attitude.

3] Protections offered to victims through department OIDV policies are not uniform throughout the state. A victim in County A may be protected by tough/enforced OIDV department policies, while a victim in County B may receive very little protections under a loosely written OIDV policy that is not even enforced;

4] OIDV department policy are not enforceable. As the law is currently written, there is no agency within the state that monitors department OIDV, or insures that police departments enforce their own OIDV policies;

5] There are no reprocussions to police departments for not adhering to their own OIDV policies;

6] There is no state agency that a victim of OIDV can report non-compliance of a police department DV policy to;

7] Victims of OIDV very seldom receive copies of their abuser's DV department policy and often do not know that such a policy exists;

8] In this department's OIDV and many other OIDV department policies throughout the state, the officer's department does not refer/ direct cases of OIDV to another police department, to insure that a neutral law enforcement agency investigates their officer's OIDV allegatio; and

9] The policy fails to address any follow up by the department, with the victim of an OIDV assault.





[MI POLICE OFFICER INVOLVED PERPETRATED DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LAW ENFORCEMENT MURDER SUICIDE]