Domestic Violence Unit Suspends Operations; May Regroup in August
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The Jackson Police Department has been forced to suspend operations of their domestic violence unit until a new grant can be approved by Jackson‘s City Council. Officials hope to have the unit back up and running in August. Five contract employees were affected by the shut down. The unit‘s coordinator is a full-time Jackson Police Department investigator and will continue to work domestic violence cases while the unit‘s operations are suspended. The unit was started in 2009 when the department was able to secure money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to fund it as a 20-month program. Since April 30, the program was run as a part of a two month grant the department received. According to Captain Mike Holt, Jackson police were able to secure further funding for the unit. However, the signed contract for the grant arrived at the department three days too late to have it on the agenda for the Jackson City Council‘s Tuesday meeting. As a result, the unit had to cease operations until the grant can be approved by the council at its next meeting in August. In the interim, Captain Holt said the department has put measures in place that he hopes will allow the department to continue with the successes achieved by the DVU. Captain Holt stated that there has been a significant decrease in domestic violence related murders in Jackson since the unit started two years ago. In addition, aggravated assaults related to domestic violence have also dropped. “I think a real key to the program (is) the investigators tell me that they see less of the repeat offenders. In other words, it’s become less of a revolving door,” said Capt. Holt. Earlier this year, the Jackson City Council agreed to offer a cash match for the grant that funds the domestic violence unit. Separately, the cold case unit in the Criminal Investigation Division of the Jackson Police Department also shut down on June 30 after ARRA funding ran out. Captain Holt stated that he hopes to be able to obtain grant funding to revive it. However, he believes it will take several months to do so.
