Harris County Precinct 4 and the sheriff’s office are launching a pilot program to serve warrants on family violence offenders while protecting survivors and their families.
The details
The initiative, announced Oct. 1, coincides with the beginning of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Precinct 4 and the sheriff’s office, in partnership with the county’s Domestic Violence Coordinating Council and district attorney’s office, have created a co-response team to protect family violence victims as offenders are served warrants.
The program’s first initiative is to serve warrants on the top 100 offenders wanted on domestic violence charges in Precinct 4, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.
“Today’s announcement…is a huge step toward equipping victims and survivors with the long-term resources they need to not just survive in that moment, but to truly escape their abusers and rebuild healthy lives,” Gonzalez said.
How it works
The Harris County Violent Persons Warrants Task Force, known as VIPER, will serve a warrant on the offender. The Sheriff’s Mobile Advocacy Response Team, or SMART, will contact the survivor and their family to help secure shelter and immediate safety, according to a press release.
“SMART takes care of the survivor, and VIPER goes after the person who hurt them,” Gonzalez said. “That’s important because you can’t start rebuilding your life when you’re constantly looking over your shoulder and wondering if your abuser is about to cause more harm.”
Cases deemed dangerous are referred to the Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council’s Domestic Violence High-Risk Team, which works with law enforcement, prosecutors and survivor services to monitor them, per the release.
The co-response team will have nine VIPER deputies and nine SMART advocates, Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones said.
Briones pointed to the recently approved county budget, which includes funding for domestic violence assistance, public safety programs and law enforcement, as some of the latest evidence of efforts to make Harris County safer.
“This is something happening in our community every day,” Briones said. “We need to speak up. We need to be good neighbors, good friends, and make sure we’re doing everything we can as a community to respond to support our survivors and make sure we’re making Harris County as safe as it can be.”
The need
Harris County’s law enforcement receives more than 40,000 domestic violence-related calls annually, according to the news release. About 30% of the county’s homicides are related to family violence, Briones said.
In unincorporated Precinct 4, family violence calls make up the largest number of calls to the sheriff’s office, per the release.
Mary McFaden, who oversees the district attorney's Domestic Violence Bureau, said Harris County leads the state in intimate partner homicides annually.
“Domestic violence is not an October crime,” McFaden said. “It’s every month of the year. And every year. And every year after that.”
