Flutterby™! : Domestic violence response

The New Republic: Tim Stelloh: Fighting Back:

...Between 40 and 50 percent of female homicide victims are killed by their husbands, boyfriends, and exes. And, for about half of these victims, police had been alerted to previous incidents of abuse.

There is, however, one exception to this grim trend: Maryland. Since 2007, domestic violence homicides in the state have fallen by a stunning 40 percent. What is Maryland doing that other states are not? The answer appears to lie with a former high school nurse, an ex-Washington, D.C., police lieutenant, and their ground-breaking efforts to protect the most vulnerable victims of abuse.

See also Royal Canadian Mounted Police: Program helps first responders save lives by David M. Sargent and Jacquelyn C. Campbell, PhD, RN. Jacquelyn Campbell is the Johns Hopkins University professor of nursing who developed the program described in that first article.

Also of interest, from the MeFi thread, National Center for Women and Policing Police Family Violence Fact Sheet:

Two studies have found that at least 40% of police officer families experience domestic violence, in contrast to 10% of families in the general population. A third study of older and more experienced officers found a rate of 24%, indicating that domestic violence is 2-4 times more common among police families than American families in general. ...

Which makes the Maryland program that much more interesting and useful because it puts metrics and procedures in place for responses to domestic violence, rather than relying upon the judgement of officers that may be clouded by relationships with (and even just empathy for the motivations of) the abusers.

Further complicating: When Officers Die: Understanding Deadly Domestic Violence Calls for Service.