According to The Tennessean, “In 2005, police cleared 211 cases without making an arrest. One year later, the number jumped to 3,866, and by 2009, it was 5,600. Police cited the victims’ lack of cooperation for not pursuing those arrests, but state law says that cannot be an excuse if there is other evidence or probable cause.” As the paper clarified in a second article, Tennessee law very clearly states that “a victim’s cooperativeness ‘shall not’ even be considered when considering whether to make an arrest.”

Although it’s clear that the Nashville Police Department has broken the law thousands of times, the members of the department have tried to place the blame on small, administrative stuff: Interim Chief Steve Anderson “chalked up the spike to a new police form that came online that year to simplify the classification of such cases.” Or, he later mused, “It could be something as simple as a training issue.” Right. This could only be a “training issue” if police are trained not to take domestic violence seriously. And what kind of “form” lets police get away with closing a case with the words, “The victim in the case doesn’t wish to prosecute at this time,” ignoring the photos in the file of her severely bruised arms.

Ever think that a woman may decline to prosecute because she could face a lot worse than black-and-blue arms? Why on earth let a woman go home to a man that had just severely beaten her? The investigation turned up other anecdotes in which women tried to follow-up and have the man who abused or threatened them arrested, only to find out their cases had been closed and couldn’t be reopened.

The Tennessean talked to a retired lieutenant who worked in the domestic violence division from 2004-2009. He believes that officers and detectives were wrongly classifying cases as “unfounded,” giving the appearance that they were doing a better job than they actually were, and felt that the department pressured officers to close cases and return to handing out traffic tickets. He made complaints about it that never went anywhere. Others feel the department was understaffed; once home to over 20 detectives, the domestic violence unit dropped to only 8 in 2008.

Nashville’s mayor has requested an audit  based on The Tennessean’s piece and the police department is looking into the problem. But if they’re looking for poor training or an online form to blame 5,600 dismissed cases of domestic abuse on, they are looking in the wrong place. This looks like a deep-seated problem in the Nashville Police Department.

It is also a symptom of a problem across the nation: not taking domestic abuse and violence against women seriously. Thousands of rape kits are stored, untested, across the country; in Washington, D.C., a young woman begged police to take her rape seriously, to no avail. Refusing to address almost 6,000 cases of domestic violence in violation of the law is criminal; sadly, it’s more indicative of how we (mis)understand domestic abuse than an exception to the rule.

Photo credit: SashaW

Nashville Police Prioritize Traffic Tickets Over Thousands of Domestic Violence Cases