The Best Practice Assessment Tools are available for communities who want to use the lessons learned from coordinated community response efforts and Safety Audits to examine their system’s response to battering. The assessment tools will help you analyze your community’s 911 through pre-trial release and supervision responses to domestic violence.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Examples of outcomes from Best Practice Assessment 
Overview Video of Best Practice Assessment 
Video on Building a Best Practice Assessment Team
Summary of Approaches to Evaluating Practice (handout)
Best Practice Assessment of Emergency Communications (911) & Police Patrol
Best Practice Assessment of Investigations & Prosecution Charging Decisions
New Tool! Best Practice Assessment of Victim-Witness Services
New Tool! Best Practice Assessment of Bail Evaluation and Conditions of Release 
New Tool! Best Practice Assessment of Pre-Trial Release Supervision and Enforcement
Best Practice Checklists for Improving Community Response to Domestic Violence
Sample Reports from Communities who have conducted the Best Practice Assessment
Past webinars featuring the Domestic Violence Best Practice Assessment Guides
Who to contact for more information


 Examples of outcomes from communities who have implemented the Domestic Violence Best Practice Assessment Guides include:

• developed and implemented follow-up questions and training for 911 operators to ask related to risk, strangulation, and whether children are present;
• improved consistency in risk assessment in patrol response, including documenting signs of strangulation;
• improved stalking investigation;
• created and implemented a domestic violence-specific incident report for patrol;
• developed a new protocol implementing the Maryland Lethality Assessment tool;
• established an advocacy-initiated response;
• developed state-certified training for patrol officers on responding to domestic violence; and
• created a new domestic violence investigator position. 


 Overview video of the Best Practice Assessment Tools 

*To see open captions, click on the CC icon of the video player, then ‘English’. Choose ‘full screen’ option for best visibility. 


 Video on Building a Team to Conduct a Best Practice Assessment   

*To see open captions, click on the CC icon of the video player, then ‘English’. Choose ‘full screen’ option for best visibility. 


 Summary of Approaches to Evaluating Practice (handout)

This handout summarizes the similarities and distinctions between three approaches to evaluating institutional practices in response to domestic violence: The Domestic Violence Best Practice Assessment, The Safety and Accountability Audit, and The Blueprint for Safety.

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 Best Practice Assessment of Emergency Communications (911) & Police Patrol Responses to Domestic Violence 

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 Best Practice Assessment of Investigations & Prosecution Charging Decisions in Domestic Violence-Related Cases 

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 New Tool! Best Practice Assessment of Victim-Witness Services 

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 New Tool! Best Practice Assessment of Bail Evaluation and Conditions of Release 

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 New Tool! Best Practice Assessment of Pre-Trial Release Supervision and Enforcement

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 Best Practice Checklists for Improving Community Response to Domestic Violence 

Praxis has condensed and revised the above Best Practice Assessment tools into separate best practice checklists. These checklists can be used by interagency groups to conduct abbreviated reviews of case files produced in 911, patrol, investigation and prosecution charging decisions. The checklists lend themselves to a relatively quick review of case files or reports by an interagency team to help your community’s intervention agencies determine their adherence to best practices. The essence of the fuller assessment guide is now more accessible to communities who wanted to do a quick review or use them as an exercise in their CCR work.

PDF icon911

PDF iconPatrol

PDF iconInvestigations

PDF iconCharging


 Sample Reports from Communities who have conducted the Best Practice Assessment 

PDF iconRecommendations for Williams & McKenzie County (North Dakota) Police Response to Domestic Violence

PDF iconReport for Deschutes County (Oregon) for Police follow-up and Prosecution Charging Decision

PDF iconReport for Deschutes County (Oregon) for 911 and Patrol

PDF iconBillings (Montana) Domestic Violence Best Practice Assessment Report for 911 and Patrol Response

PDF iconFindings and Recommendations for Aroostook County (Maine) Police Response to Domestic Violence


 Past webinars featuring the Domestic violence Best Practice Assessment Guides

Watch What is Best Practice for…Victim-Witness Services, Bail Setting, and Pre-Trial Release? June 2018, Maren Woods and Denise Eng

Watch Assessing for Core Practices in Criminal Justice System Response to Domestic Violence: Using the Best Practice Assessment Guides to Analyze 911 & Patrol, October 2016, Maren Woods, Courtney Chasse, and Officer Katie Nash

Watch Using the BPA Guides to Analyze Prosecution Response to Battering, September 2015, Olga Trujillo, Courtney Chasse, Trish Meyer, Drew Moore, and Judi Nelson

Watch An Introduction to the Domestic Violence Best Practice Assessment Guide, July 2015, Olga Trujillo, Courtney Chase, Suzie Kramer-Brenna, Trish Meyer, Katie Nash, and Maren Woods 

Watch Presenting the Case: Best Practices in Prosecution Charging Decisions, September 2014, Rhonda Martinson and Maren Woods

Watch Building the Domestic Violence Case: Best Practices in Patrol and Investigation, August 2014, Lucy Pope and John Beyer

Watch Presenting the Domestic Violence Case: Best Practices in Prosecution Charging Decisions, October 2013, Jane Sadusky and Rhonda Martinson

Watch Building the Domestic Violence Case: Best Practice in Patrol and Investigation, August 2013, Jane Sadusky and John Beyer

Watch The 911 Call: The Critical Starting Point, June 2013, Jane Sadusky and Emily Debroux


Who can I contact for more information about the Best Practice Assessment?

Email info@praxisinternational.org to learn more.