INDIANAPOLIS — The U.S. Dept. of Justice Office of Violence Against Women awarded the City of Indianapolis a $1 million grant on Oct. 1. The grant will help expand current initiatives to better address victim safety and mental health, investigate and prosecute cases, and enforce protective orders.
The $1 million award will help to expand two efforts in Indianapolis focused on preventing domestic and sexual violence and increasing the safety of survivors. First piloted in 2011 and fully implemented in 2012, The Baker One Project is a multi-agency collaboration that seeks to identify high-risk couples before a domestic homicide occurs. Independent analyses in 2014 and 2017 found the project has been effective in reducing domestic violence homicide, increasing survivors’ access to services, and decreasing law enforcement interaction with high-risk offenders.
The second of these initiatives, the Coordinated Community Response to Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, focuses on increasing data-driven policing efforts and offender accountability, as well as promoting access to supportive services, and advocacy for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. Grant funding will also support “Assistance on Protective Order” community trainings as well as additional trainings on domestic violence that will be available to IMPD officers and excluded city law enforcement agencies.
IMPD investigated 4,612 instances of domestic violence in 2018, with 4,313 of those cases cleared and 2,341 that resulted in arrests. Also last year, The Julian Center provided services to 3,967 survivors through their inclusive continuum of care, a 12 percent increase over 2017.