Glendale domestic violence cases rise sharply

By Steve Stockmar
Twitter: @stevestockmar

Brian Draper has been a domestic violence detective with the Glendale Police Department for five years now. He’s seen a lot for sure, but one case still shocks him to this day.

While citing the national average statistic that victims won’t typically leave their abuser until seven instances have occurred, detectives can never quite be sure when that time will eventually arrive. Some of the violence a Glendale woman endured during her time with her abuser was “horrendous,” Mr. Draper recalled, and reached the point where she could have lost her baby or died herself multiple times.

“I mean horrific stuff,” he remembered Oct. 14, during National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. “But the thing that she reported -- and for some reason the final straw for her -- was when he took her glasses and bent them and threw them on the ground. That was her final straw. Why was that the final straw? I don’t know. That still confounds me. It’s a different point for everybody.”

Statistics surround domestic violence can be shocking.

In 2019, the National Domestic Violence Hotline documented 5,019 contacts from Arizona. The state ranks No. 11 in terms of contact volume to the hotline, which provides crisis intervention, safety planning, referrals and domestic violence and intimate partner violence education.

Of the Arizona calls, 3% came from Glendale.

• On average, more than 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men in the U.S. will experience rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner
• 1 in 10 high school students have experienced physical violence from a partner during the past year alone
• An average of 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner in the U.S. — more than 12 million women and men during the course of a single year.
• 1 in 4 women (24.3 percent) and 1 in 7 men (13.8 percent) aged 18 and older in the U.S. have been the victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime.

Domestic violence takes on many inter-relationship forms.

“Domestic violence is for any kind of relationship, whether it be roommates, whether it be father and son. It can be cousins, brother-in-law. There are a lot of different relationships under that spectrum,” Glendale police public information officer Tiffany Ngalula said. “But Domestic Violence Awareness Month is about ‘intimate partner’ violence, because that’s really where there’s more potential for homicide and murder.”

And  domestic violence trends themselves, says Mr. Draper, are changing as well. He reports  strangulations are on the rise, and indeed in Arizona in 2019, of the most commonly disclosed factors by victims and survivors, a “child involved” ranks the highest (48%) followed by “strangulation” (19%).

In 2020, coronavirus has had an impact. While each of the five domestic violence detectives at Glendale police carry an average of 10 active cases at any time, those numbers fell sharply to two or three cases on average at the outset of coronavirus this past spring.

“It was weird at first,” he recalled.

The trend, however, dramatically swung the other way during the next few months, with Mr. Draper, on Oct. 14, reporting those same detectives now carry an average of 20-plus active cases.

“The last two and a half, three months, it has just exploded. And the level of violence has increased exponentially as we’ve seen basically across the board in all the crimes,” he said. “In DV, there’s a lot more guns involved, a lot more people going to the hospital. The level of violence has ratcheted up tremendously compared to what it was in past years.”

And domestic violence awareness will continue not only after October has passed, but into the holiday season.

“Anytime where there is family together unfortunately and especially any holiday party where there is drinking; anything where there is a lot of drinking or drugs involved, that obviously increases because people aren’t in their right state of mind when they do these things,” Mr. Draper said.

Glendale police are working with Midwestern University, 19555 N. 59th Ave., Glendale, on a pilot program to use technology to add to investigations. Computer software will be able to detect potential victim speaking patterns when reading common phrases to alert to a voice that has been impacted as a result of strangulation.

Many resources are available, starting with dialing 911 in an emergency situation.

“What a domestic violence person ultimately seeks is control, so what these resources do is they take away that control from that person,” Mr. Draper said of rendering aid to victims. “Because they’re going to use something to control (their victim). Whether it be, ‘If you leave me you won’t have a place to live.’ Well guess what, we’ve got places for them to live. ‘If you leave me you’ll get deported and I’ll take your kids.’ We have resources for that. ‘You’re worthless without me.’ Counseling helps you with that.”

The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233).

Steve Stockmar
News Editor | Sun Life Magazine & Arts & Entertainment YourValley.net
@stevestockmar

sstockmar@iniusa.org

Meet Steve
Steve Stockmar joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2017, and has been an Arizona journalist for almost 30 years. He serves as editor of Sun Life Magazine and contributes to West Valley communities where he focuses mostly on arts & culture, education, and profiles of neighbors making a difference.

Community: Every season Steve serves as a “buddy” with the Miracle League of Arizona in Scottsdale, has volunteered his time with Family Promise in Glendale, and previously served on the Ghostlight Theatre board in Sun City West.

Education: Graduated from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff with a Journalism major and English minor.

Random Fact: Steve once won a 50-player live Texas Hold ’Em poker tournament.

Hobbies: Anguishing over his beloved Chicago Cubs and Bears; listening to Beatles and Grateful Dead music.