About 30 years after the passage of the national Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), updates from the Domestic Violence Initiative Regional Task Force highlight progress and challenges that still exist today.

The 30th anniversary of VAWA was on Sept. 13, but on Sept. 10, the task force met for the South King County City Leaders Breakfast and quarterly meeting. The task force focuses on King County and brings together a variety of government and independent organizations to look at system-wide ways to deal with the issue.

In Federal Way alone, the Federal Way Police Department took 787 case reports on domestic violence related incidents in 2023, or more than one a day. Cmdr. Kyle Buchanan, who shared these statistics with the Mirror via email, clarified that cases labeled domestic violence include more than just assaults.

“Any crime (i.e. theft, burglary, fraud) can be labeled as DV if the relationship between the parties meets the statutory definition of a domestic relationship,” he said.

Breaking down data like this is an important part of reducing violence, said David Martin, chair of the Domestic Violence Unit and a King County Prosecuting Attorney.

“I grew up in the ‘70s. I grew up in a household in King County in Seattle. I grew up in a house with domestic violence … so when SPD came to my home, I still remember the patrol officers basically telling my mom to keep it down. Then they would leave,” Martin said at the task force breakfast.

Reflecting on his own experience, he said, “it didn’t occur to me, really, until this morning, that probably was never written down as an incident report related to domestic violence.”

Not having that traumatic incident documented meant it didn’t contribute to the passage of laws intended to protect survivors like him. Collecting data on how violence between partners and within families relates to other crimes, and how that violence shows up in different segments of the population, can help lead to more effective solutions, Martin said.

“We don’t have a central place that reports violent death. We do know the number of homicides thanks to our medical examiner, but those homicides are not necessarily broken down by domestic violence, nor is that information broken down according to the type of domestic violence,” Martin said as one example.

There are many places in the process where there is room for improvement, but one is collecting data when police respond to a DV call, specifically in collecting subtle details like symptoms of strangulation, he said.

In 2021, Washington state become the first in the nation to offer forensic exams to victims of strangulation.

Forensic exams are done by a specialized medical professional and are completed after sexual assault. Offering them to victims of strangulation means more evidence can be collected of the crime, Martin said.

Getting to an exam room starts in the field with police, who can offer forensic exams and also know what to look for so they know when to offer them. Martin congratulated the Kent Police Department for “being one of the first to adopt the new strangulation supplemental form that’s going to be rolled out across the county,” for just this reason.

“Research indicates that victims of strangulation are seven times more likely to be killed by their intimate partner, and strangulation is often a perpetrator’s last act before murdering an intimate partner,” as the Washington Association of Prosecutors’ Domestic Violence Handbook explains.

King County has been working on ways to make filing a personal protection order more accessible, said Chelle Hunsinger de Encisco, the outreach and training coordinator for the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. The county began allowing people to file protection orders online for the first time in 2020 as domestic violence rates increased during the “stay home, stay healthy” orders.

The Protection Order Portal made it more accessible to file the protection orders online, which formerly had to be done in person, and also made the process much clearer. This 2022 change has actually made the process much more functional because it combines the varied requirements across many different places and court systems, Hunsinger de Encisco explained at the breakfast.

Federal Way

Federal Way has a Domestic Violence Task Force that works toward “promoting prevention, victim safety, community awareness and abuser accountability through organization, education and outreach.”

Federal Way City Councilmembers Susan Honda and Lydia Assefa-Dawson were present at the breakfast, as well as Judge Dave Larson and Cmdr. Michael Coffey of the FWPD.

Another Federal Way guest was Janet Chance, whom Honda introduced as one of her “heroes.” Chance has worked on reducing domestic violence in Federal Way for many years and was part of an effort to put together a brochure on dating violence to help provide young people with resources.

The City of Federal Way also provides advocates for domestic violence victims through the Federal Way Municipal Court. The advocate is not an attorney, but is a member of the prosecution team. The advocate is available Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., according to the city’s website.

Chelle Hunsinger de Enicso explaining how the Protection Order Portal helps survivors of domestic violence access protection. The Domestic Violence Initiative Task Force South King County City Leaders Breakfast provided opportunities to network between those working to fight domestic violence in King County. Photos by Keelin Everly-Lang / the Mirror

David Martin holds up a book that compiled a visual history of the fight to stop violence against women. In this reprinted cover of a Ms. Magazine, a woman’s face can be seen battered and bruised. Martin is chair of the DVI Task Force and a prosecuting attorney for King County.

Amarinthia Torres (left) is the Co-Executive DIrector for the Coalition Ending Gender Based Violence. Here she speaks to another leader in DVI work at the South King County City Leaders Breakfast.

Hazel Brown, a guest at the South King County City Leaders Breakfast, looks through the book brought by David Martin that reproduces an archive of media coverage of the fight to reduce domestic violence.