The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) awarded the Danville Police Department a $91,550 grant from the Community Policing Development Microgrants Program.
The COPS Office directed funds to agencies for the implementation of innovative community policing strategies. The Danville Police Department applied for this grant in March 2020. The Department will collaborate with Drs. Rachel and Roberto Santos from Radford University and Haven of the Dan River Region to pilot a police-led proactive response to repeat domestic calls for service. The strategy will use crime data analysis with a problem-solving approach to better identify potential victims and appropriately respond to problematic domestic situations
Domestic-related incident calls for service represent the single largest category of calls for service for police and continue to be one of the most dangerous calls for officers. The City of Danville had 1007, 818, and 838 domestic-related calls for service in 2017, 2018, and 2019, respectively. During this three-year period, there were 234 incidents of Aggravated Domestic Assault and four domestic-related homicides.
How the police respond in a domestic violence call for service plays a fundamental role in connecting the victim, the offender and other family members to needed services. With this in mind, these funds will help provide tailored training to officers and support the implementation of the Domestic Violence Repeat Incident Strategy into the Department’s current Stratified Policing Model.
COPS Community Policing Development (CPD) Microgrants Program Award Announcement Press Release
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-awards-22-million-innovative-community-policing-projects
2020 COPS Office Community Policing Development Microgrants Program Awards List
https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/2020AwardDocs/cpdmicrogrants/Award_List.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery