Following five domestic violence homicides, San Mateo County launches co-response pilot

Response to a domestic violence incident in San Mateo County is similar to that of law enforcement in many other locales: Officers show up, investigate, potentially take action and connect the survivors with a domestic-violence hotline to get help if they choose.

But soon, a trained domestic violence advocate will accompany officers on DV calls in three areas of the county in a pilot program aimed at helping domestic violence survivors leave dangerous situations and find necessary support.

“We believe that this program will save lives,” said San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus. “We didn’t want to have another statistic.”

The program comes in response to a surge in homicides in domestic violence incidents in 2023, when five women were killed in domestic violence incidents in the county, said Karen Ferguson, CEO of Community Overcoming Relationship Abuse, the organization that will employ the advocates.

Between 2010 and 2017, there were between one and two homicides linked to domestic violence incidents per year, according to a report compiled by San Mateo County. The year 2021 had the same as last year, with five such killings, according to the county.

“There’s a really small window of time where we can reach a survivor and provide them with the support and assistance and give them the confidence that they’re not going to be alone and that they’ll be protected and that they will have the resources that they need,” Corpus said.

In response to the rise of homicides associated with domestic violence in San Mateo County, Supervisor Noelia Corzo mobilized a task force to explore interventions for domestic violence in the county. Inspired by a similar program in Queensland, Australia, Corpus pitched a co-response model that turned into the Domestic Violence Emergency Response Team.

The model will first be piloted in the police departments of San Mateo and Daly City and the sheriff’s office branch in North Fair Oaks, according to a press release from the county. The 30-month contract includes about six months of ramp-up, Ferguson said. CORA is in the process of hiring advocates, seeking candidates who speak multiple languages and who have past experience in working with survivors of domestic violence, according to the job listing.

The advocates will be hired and overseen by CORA but will be embedded at the police departments because the program is also aimed at “learning from each other,” Ferguson added.

“Having [the co-responder] be a part of CORA and really understanding the cycles and the trauma and the resources necessary to try and help someone – because they are an expert in working with victims of domestic violence – that we thought this would be the automatic best partnership to have,” Corpus said.

When they receive a call, police officers will arrive first to secure the scene, Ferguson said. Then, the co-response advocate will arrive in their own vehicle to talk with the survivor and provide them with support resources, and they will follow up the next day.

“We want to get there as many times as we can, and we want to get there as close to the crisis as we can,” Ferguson said. “Putting those two things together gives us better opportunity for helping somebody to maybe mobilize and start to make a significant change in a safe way.”

Ferguson pointed out that there are many factors involved in a person’s decision to leave an abusive relationship: how to pay for an apartment, what impact it may have on their children, the length of time since they have last worked.

“There’s many, many complicating factors,” Ferguson said. “There’s a lot of reasons why people end up reconciling and choosing to stay, and so we frequently need to sort of knock on their door a bunch of times.”

Since the advocates will be employed by CORA, they will give survivors of domestic violence direct access to CORA’s other services, which include case management, free legal and mental health services, emergency shelter and long-term rental assistance, Ferguson said. They can also help connect survivors with services offered through partnered agencies.

Before the implementation of this program, police gave CORA a referral to those involved in incidents, leaving advocates and survivors “playing phone tag,” Ferguson said, increasing the chances that families will end up in reconciliation. Advocates only have a 30% to 50% success rate getting in contact with survivors using day-after outreach, she added.

“If we’re standing right there, now 100% will at least have chatted with us,” she added. “A lot of the assumptions and fears can get dispelled right away, whereas you know, if we try to do an outreach the next day, they may be more wary of picking up that call.”

For calls that happen outside of working hours, the program will work alongside the Emergency Response Program, where police connect survivors with a 24/7 CORA hotline.

To decide whether to expand the program, law enforcement and CORA will be watching to see if it has a positive impact, Ferguson said. A research and evaluation consulting group will help develop the metrics to measure.

To start, they will primarily look at three metrics, Ferguson added: the services that clients use through ERP versus through a co-responder, the prevalence of repeat offenders and whether law enforcement come to better understand a victim advocate mentality and vice versa.

“I’m really looking forward to the success of the program, and, you know, really being an advocate for other law enforcement agencies and other sheriff’s offices to to model this program,” Corpus said. “The most important thing here is to save lives, and to help these families that are the victims.”