NCJ Number
92554
Journal
FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin Volume: 52 Issue: 11 Dated: (November 1983) Pages: 10-14
Date Published
1983
Length
5 pages
Annotation
The Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department's Family Disturbance Intervention Program (FDIP), initiated in 1979 to reduce injury to officers, provide better services to the community, and collect data on domestic services calls, addresses the areas of training, data gathering, and referral.
Abstract
The training program, a hierarchical approach to crisis intervention, teaches the skills of safety, defusion, communication, resolution, and referral in ascending order over the 5-day training period. It uses lectures, films, panel discussions, small group seminars, self-defense techniques, psychodrama, and roleplaying simulations. The Computer Assisted Dispatching System records essential information and gives a district commander the capability to examine repeat calls for family disturbances in order to target potential assaults or even possible homicides. The FACT hotline, designated as the program's 'brokerage house,' provides referral information, offering the officer unlimited resources for assisting the citizen and eliminating the frustration of not being able to help. Evaluation studies verify the program's effectiveness: trained officers received higher ratings for handling and defusing simulated domestic disturbance calls than untrained officers; attitudes toward intervening in domestic disputes improved after training; and trained officers were less likely to be assaulted in responding to disturbance calls than untrained officers. The FDIP demonstrates that a new role is evolving for the police officer, and police trainers must address the needs of the officer by providing him/her with the skills to deal effectively with socially related problems.