New York's Domestic Incident Report Repository is Live, Raising Concerns

November 30, 2012

New York's Domestic Incident Report Repository is live, raising concerns

Law enforcement officials, legislators, state prosecutors and victims' advocates are hailing New York's new electronic Domestic Incident Report Repository as a win for the state. However, advocates of the DIRR may overlook the negative implications the database may have on those included on domestic reports, including those accused of committing domestic violence and those who are innocent but implicated in a report.

What is the Domestic Incident Report Repository?

The Domestic Incident Report Repository is an electronic database of all domestic incident reports filed in 175 counties across New York state, which produce about 175,000 reports each year. Domestic incident reports generated in the five counties in and around New York City are not included in the DIRR. In the year since the DIRR has been active, nearly a quarter of a million reports dating back to 2010 have been uploaded to the online database.

The DIRR is the brainchild of law enforcement and state public safety agencies. It was funded with $1.5 million of American Reinvestment and Recovery Act money. The DIRR is searchable by victim name, offender name, address or location of the incident and document number. Though not available to the public, the DIRR is accessible by law enforcement officers, sheriffs' deputies, probation and parole officers and prosecutors.

Proponents of the DIRR believe it will help improve officer safety, since the reports can be used by dispatchers to inform responding officers of past disturbances or violence at a particular address. They also claim the DIRR will help uncover individuals who have been involved in multiple reports but never arrested, revealing a pattern of abuse that the state wishes to nip in the bud.

Officers are required to fill out a Domestic Incident Report when they respond to a domestic violence call, regardless of whether or not they made an arrest. These reports are now uploaded into the DIRR, populating the law enforcement database with names of citizens who may not have been charged with a crime.

Concerns over the reach of the DIRR

While the DIRR may help law enforcement investigate real cases of domestic violence, it also will create a database entry for those who may not be guilty of--or even charged with--a domestic violence crime.

For example, there is no safeguard in the system against abuse of the repository, including unfounded or false complaints filed against innocent individuals. Since law enforcement must fill out a Domestic Incident Report when responding to a domestic incident call regardless of circumstance, many innocent people will become searchable in a database meant to keep track of real, violent offenders.

Domestic violence crimes should be taken seriously, but sometimes law enforcement are called out on domestic complaints that are unfounded or simply made up. Unfortunately, the DIRR treats these cases the same as any other domestic call. It is important that those involved in a domestic incident understand the implications being included on a Domestic Incident Report now has for New Yorkers. If you have been accused of a domestic assault and worry the DIRR will falsely implicate you in a pattern of abuse, please contact an experienced criminal defense attorney.

Article provided by DeRoberts Law Firm
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