Public Awareness
OPDV Bulletin: Safety and Accountability Audits
The Safety and Accountability Audit, developed by Ellen Pence of Duluth, Minnesota, is designed to examine, in an inter-disciplinary way, whether institutional policies and practices enhance victim safety and enforce offender accountability. The premise behind the process is that workers are "institutionally organized" to do their jobs. In other words, workers are guided in how they do their jobs by the forms, policies, philosophy, practices and culture of the institution in which they work. A Safety and Accountability Audit, therefore, is not a performance review of individual employees. It examines the institution or system and how it is set up to handle domestic violence cases.
Safety and Accountability Audits are conducted by inter-disciplinary teams from within the local community, including representatives from the agency or agencies being examined through the audit. There are four main components of a Safety and Accountability Audit. Mapping involves outlining each point of institutional action in the system response to determine where there is currently or where there is an opportunity for system intervention. Interviewing involves talking to several workers about how they do their jobs, how their jobs are organized and what is available to them to help them do their jobs. Observation involves Audit team members actually watching workers do their jobs, which depending on the focus of the Audit, could take the form of a police ride along, observing court proceedings or sitting in on a pre-sentence investigation interview by a probation officer. Finally, text analysis involves examining the paperwork and other text generated by workers to determine if the forms, reports and other documents themselves and the way they are completed enhance or hinder victim safety and offender accountability.
As a way to assess the local response to domestic violence, Safety and Accountability Audits can be an effective community coordination tool. They can help communities engaged in coordination to determine where reform and resources are necessary and can assist in deciding how to prioritize local efforts. For communities that have not yet begun formal community coordination efforts, a Safety and Accountability Audit can be a good starting point. Many communities across the country have participated in Safety and Accountability Audits and the process has evolved over time. This assessment tool has been a valuable resource that has produced positive system and policy change in communities that have utilized it.
In June 1999, representatives from OPDV, the NYS Coalition Against Domestic Violence, NYS Police, NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services, NYS Division of Probation and Correctional Alternatives and the University of Buffalo Family Law Clinic participated in a training on Safety and Accountability Audits conducted by Praxis International in Duluth, Minnesota. This training was designed to prepare representatives from the participating agencies to assist New York State communities in these efforts.
The representatives formed a team to apply the process to a local community. The focus of this first Safety and Accountability Audit is on information sharing between law enforcement and prosecution in domestic violence cases. A report summarizing the process and outcomes of the Audit will be issued later this year. The goal of the report is to not only offer the findings and recommendations of the Audit but to assist other communities that might be interested in conducting their own local Audits.
The process of conducting a Safety and Accountability Audit has been a unique and valuable experience for the Audit team and for members of the community in which the Audit was conducted. Although the report has not yet been released, positive steps have already been taken as a result of the findings and recommendations of the team.
One finding of the team was identifying a need to formalize informal or unwritten policy. The team found that many of the practices and policies workers operate under are unwritten and sometimes at the discretion of the individual worker. To enhance consistency and system accountability, the team recommended formalizing these unwritten practices. Another finding of the team was the need for training. Several areas of training were identified, including cross training among and between police, prosecutors and domestic violence advocates.
Developing and enhancing linkages was another recommendation of the Audit team. Team members found confusion among workers about what services existed in the community, which agencies provided which services and when referrals were to be made. It was recommended that linkages be formalized and clearly defined.
While the Audit activities were specific to one local community, many of the findings and recommendations could be applied more broadly, both statewide and nationally. Each Audit is unique, but communities can learn from the work done in other areas and can use the information to enhance their own local response to domestic violence.
OPDV is available to provide training and technical assistance to communities interested in conducting local Safety and Accountability Audits. For more information, visit the OPDV website at www.opdv.state.ny.us/coordination/safetyaudit.html or contact Mary Walsh at mwalsh@opdv.state.ny.us.
