June 17, 2022 | From City of New Orleans
CITY OF NEW ORLEANS ANNOUNCES FORMAL ESTABLISHMENT OF DOMESTIC ABUSE FATALITY REVIEW TEAM
NEW ORLEANS — Mayor LaToya Cantrell recently signed an ordinance formally establishing a Domestic Abuse Fatality Review Team (DAFRT) within the New Orleans Health Department (NOHD). The Review Team will be comprised of dedicated representatives from more than 20 community and criminal justice organizations.
The DAFRT will identify trends, patterns and potential interventions for reducing the prevalence of domestic abuse and related fatalities. It requires the NOHD to produce and disseminate an annual report outlining team findings and highlighting recommendations.
"The establishment of this review team coincides with my administration’s holistic approach to treating public safety as a matter of public health," said Mayor Cantrell. "This also shows that when all of our criminal justice stakeholders come together, we are better able to create initiatives and programs that will make our overall public safety agencies stronger, our residents safer and our prevention and intervention efforts more effective. We will continue to work diligently produce results that lead to a safer New Orleans for all our residents."
Over the last 10 years, an average of 10 percent of all homicides in Orleans Parish were identified as fatalities resulting directly from domestic abuse. The review team will provide information and analysis to identify gaps in systemic interventions and develop recommendations to prevent future fatalities. Domestic Abuse Fatality Review Teams have been established in cities across the country to understand better how systems can more effectively meet the needs of domestic abuse victims and survivors, and thus reduce fatalities in the community.
"This fatality review team will help us take a deeper look at violent domestic incidents to see where the gaps are in services that possibly prevented a victim from getting help before it was too late," said Dr. Jennifer Avegno, Director of the New Orleans Health Department. "This will allow us to collectively develop better preventative programs and interventions to stop future violence."
Among the agencies required to participate in the NOHD DAFRT include:
- The New Orleans Police Department
- New Orleans Emergency Medical Services
- Orleans Parish Communications District
- Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office
- Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office
- Orleans Parish Criminal District Court
- New Orleans Family Justice Center
Additional representatives will be a part of the review team, including those from state agencies, local universities and colleges, batterer intervention programs, local hospitals and medical organizations and community-based civil legal service agencies.
In 2019, the NOHD's Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault Program (DV&SA) began reviewing domestic fatality characteristics to contextualize and document this issue in the community. The report found that while domestic fatalities make up only a tiny fraction of all domestic violence-related incidents, the impact on families and communities was devastating.
NOHD will convene with the team throughout the year and review the city's circumstances and details of all domestic abuse fatalities.
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