By Dottie Davis, Ret. Deputy Chief, Davis Corporate Training, Inc.
I spent 32 years wearing a police uniform, and since the early 1990’s I have had the privilege of training thousands of law enforcement officers across our nation. I’ve watched as the profession of policing has evolved with new technology and advancement in training practices and principles such as collection of and continuity of valuable evidence and trauma-informed interviewing.
As a law enforcement commander, I’ve implemented best practices in responding to domestic violence calls for service, preached on our tactical approach to increase officer, survivor, and witness safety, and worked to build collaboration between advocacy and law enforcement to identify those survivors most at risk of homicide through lethality assessments. These are solid steps to improve outcomes across the nation.
Call It What It Is
In almost every block of instruction, regardless of the topic, language and choice of words are addressed. For example, with all 50 states now having a strangulation statute, we have educated and informed our officers and advocates as to the critical importance of not calling this felony crime “choking.” Why? Because they are not interchangeable terms. Impeding the flow of oxygen and/or blood by applying external force, such as with someone’s hands or a ligature, is not choking. Choking is what happens when food is lodged inside a person’s trachea or blocking their airway. Strangulation occurs when a person intentionally puts their hand/s, or some type of ligature around someone’s throat to prevent them from breathing. Society, news media, courts, and juries are often confused by the fact that there is likely no outward physical evidence that strangulation occurred. Consequently, we have worked diligently to train our officers to understand the complexities of this crime, to ask the right questions, and to use the most accurate, descriptive, and technically accurate language when authoring our reports. Using the wrong word to identify the criminal act minimizes the near-death experience of the survivor and sets the tone for the investigation. Words matter.
And that is why this discussion must occur. When the police respond to a domestic violence call and write their report, they identify the person who caused harm as the offender. The suspect. The perpetrator. Only witnesses at the scene are identified as involved. But somehow, when law enforcement responds to a domestic violence call to the home of another police officer where the offender is an officer, the language changes. In the United States, society doesn’t call the commissioned law enforcement officer who chose to cause harm to their intimate partner any of those terms that we use to identify other domestic violence perpetrators. They are not the offender, the suspect, or the perpetrator. Suddenly, there is an act of Officer-Involved Domestic Violence (OIDV).
Hold All Abusers to the Same Standard
When you hear the term OIDV, do you picture the officer as someone who is being investigated because of a potential criminal act of domestic violence against the person they profess to love or the mother of their children? Or, do you think that the officer responded to the call for service and is involved in the investigation? The ‘I” in OIDV leaves too much to interpretation and is simply inaccurate and misleading. Whether by design or otherwise, ‘involved’ leaves people with the impression that the offending officer is engaging in behavior that is less serious and less criminal than it is.
By changing the language because of the profession of the offender, society is minimizing and softening the severity of the situation just as with the use of the word ‘choking’ instead of ‘strangulation.’ Words matter. Law Enforcement is setting the investigation up for failure. That failure is evidenced when probable cause is met on the scene to make an arrest and the investigation shifts to an internal issue because the perpetrator is an officer. It is further evidenced when responding officers refer to their comrade by their title/rank instead of by their surname demonstrating to the survivor, once again, the disparity in status of the intimate couple.
Know the Psychology, Follow Your Policy
Trained law enforcement personnel know that domestic batterers are highly manipulative and will often paint the picture of the true victim as unstable or the predominant aggressor. In cases of law enforcement officers as the perpetrators of domestic violence, they know what probable cause needs to be developed, evidence needed for a successful prosecution, and the likelihood that the survivor will recant and the investigation will all go away. The survivor has likely been told that if you call the police, they are not going to do anything because “I am the police”. Imagine the feelings of hopelessness when a survivor’s terror is dismissed and they see their abuser being treated as a co-worker instead of a perpetrator of a crime.
It’s highly likely that your law enforcement agency has a domestic violence policy. But do you have a specific policy for when officers are the suspect or victim in a domestic violence call for service? The International Association of Chiefs of Police released a model policy on OIDV in 2003. Some agencies adopted it, but exactly how many have done so is unknown. What is more unknown is the number of agencies who have trained their personnel on the procedures and enforced the policy, as well as annually reviewed and updated it. And even more unknown is the data around the number of calls for service on domestic violence within our police families because it shifts from a criminal to an internal investigation more often than not. However, a quick internet search will verify that 1-2 officers a week are being arrested across the country for domestic violence or sexual assault crimes.
A Survivor’s View From the Inside
I know first-hand that no officer wants to be dispatched to another officer’s home on a domestic violence call. And I also know what it feels like, first-hand, to have officers look the other way, not hold the offender accountable, and not adhere to their own agency’s domestic violence policy because the offender (or the survivor) is one of their own.
As a survivor of Police-Perpetrated Domestic Violence (PPDV) I can still see the responding officers shaking hands and being greeted by their fellow officer, my abuser, when they arrived at our home after I called 911. I recall vividly them setting him on one corner of the full-size bed and me on the other and asking me if I wanted to press charges. While my lip was still swelling, blood still trickling down my neck, and my ear throbbing from the direct blow to the side of my head, they waited for my response. As I turned to look at the man who professed to love me, who wore a police uniform similar to mine, all I could hear was his words, “If you tell anyone, they will fire you.” My intimate partner stood, asked if they would not write a report, swore the dispatchers to secrecy, and told them he would take care of my injuries. And once again, he had the final word on the criminal acts he committed in our home.
If you would like to learn more about my path forward, I encourage you to read or listen to my memoir STRANGLED: A Survivor’s Plea To Men Who Look The Other Way set to be released on March 8, 2026. And if you want to be part of the solution, let’s start by calling it what it is: Police-Perpetrated Domestic Violence (PPDV). Australia and England appropriately do so, and so should we.
Quick Tips When Responding to PPDV
- Adopt a PPDV policy and train all personnel, including commanders.
- Train your dispatch personnel on the policy and procedures.
- If the suspect is a patrol officer, a sergeant or above should be the lead investigator at the scene. If the suspect holds rank, the next rank above should lead the investigation.
- If your agency is restricted due to size or geographic location, develop a memorandum of understanding with a neighboring jurisdiction for aid on PPDV investigations. (Note: If your agency already uses an outside agency for Officer-Involved Shooting investigations, follow suit with PPDV investigations.)
- When probable cause is found, an on-site arrest should be made rather than referring the case to the prosecutor to decide if criminal charges will be filed.
- A lethality or danger assessment should be conducted on-scene with the survivor.
- Regardless of the outcome of the lethality or danger assessment, immediately connect the survivor to a community-based advocate (not an advocate or social worker within your law enforcement agency) to begin safety planning and inform the survivor of their options, including getting a protective order.
- Command personnel should issue an administrative order for the officer to have no contact with the victim or household members while their internal investigation is pending.
- The internal investigation should begin immediately and should not wait on the outcome of the criminal investigation.
