On October 23, 2003, in connection with the Clackamas County Domestic Violence Enhanced Response Team, Deschutes County Law Enforcement joined in a multi-state effort to execute outstanding arrest warrants of persons charged with crimes related to family violence.
The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, Redmond Police Department, Bend Police Department, and Deschutes County Community Corrections officers made an intensive effort to locate and arrest numerous persons who have evaded the justice system and have outstanding warrants. Those arrested will be brought before the Deschutes County Circuit Court and prosecuted by the Deschutes County District Attorney’s Office within the coming weeks.
The domestic violence offenders that law enforcement attempted to reach yesterday have mostly violated terms of probation, or have failed to appear in court on initial domestic violence charges.
“This sweep was done in an effort to bring attention to domestic violence and the attempts being made to hold offenders accountable for their actions,” says Detective Sargeant Erik Utter with the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office.
The sweep was conducted yesterday in observance of domestic violence prevention month. An organization based out of Colorado Springs called DVERT (www.dvert.org) networks with counties across the country to conduct the one-day sweep of domestic violence perpetrators on an annual basis. Working with Deschutes County through Clackamas County, this is the first time the sweep has been conducted here. DVERT is working on building a new nationwide program that would better connect counties so offenders can be more easily tracked as they move throughout the country.
Yesterday’s domestic violence sweep involved seven teams of officers who went to homes and attempted to execute arrest warrants. Multiple suspects were apprehended during the sweep. While not successful in many attempts, the ratio of arrests to attempts made was higher than Clackamas County’s ratio last year when they conducted their sweep. During a sweep such as this, domestic violence offender addresses are usually found to be outdated. Records are updated after such an effort is made. The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office will continue to monitor outstanding warrants on domestic violence offenders that they tried to contact yesterday.
|
