Domestic violence calls, arrests rising for Iowa City

IOWA CITY - On Sept. 30, Kendell R. Hillman of Cedar Rapids was accused of violating a domestic abuse protective order.

Beginning on Oct. 1 and continuing for the next six days, Iowa City police said Hillman made 66 calls to the woman he is accused of abusing.

Every one of those calls came from inside the Johnson County Jail.

Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek said jail staff monitors inmate phone calls occasionally, and they do have the capacity to block certain numbers to protect victims from further harassment. And while Pulkrabek is confident his deputies catch most of those violations, he said they don't get them all.

'Occasionally some of those fall through the cracks,” Pulkrabek said. The inmates 'end up using someone else in the cell block to start the call or use someone else's PIN.”

According to statistics from the Iowa City Police Department, for example, domestic violence arrests, calls for service related to domestic violence and violations of no contact orders are all on the rise. There were 334 calls for service to the department related to domestic violence in 2012, and 315 through Oct. 9.

Arrests in 2012 totaled 117 for the year. That same number was reached by Oct. 9 this year.

By comparison, domestic abuse numbers in Cedar Rapids have remained flat. There were 4,438 calls for service and 584 arrests in 2012, and 3,239 calls for service and 390 arrests through Oct. 20 this year.

Neither of those 2014 figures in Iowa City account for the work of the department's domestic violence investigator, Scott Stevens, who reported his case load brings the 2014 totals up to 470 calls for service and 214 arrests.

'Basically I'm creating cases and creating arrests. My role has had an impact,” Stevens said. 'It doesn't account for everything.”

Stevens's presence also has been felt on the no contact order violations, which went from 76 in 2011 to 96 as of Oct. 9. Of those violations, 43 originated at the jail.

Stevens said he has access to the jail phone records and obtained access to Muscatine County Jail records - where Johnson County houses its overflow inmates - and uses that to detect protective order violators.

'If I see a case come through, I do a follow-up and do a search of the system,” Stevens said.

Violence ‘as a tool'

Kristie Fortmann-Doser, executive director of the Domestic Violence Intervention Program (DVIP) in Iowa City, attributes the rise in domestic violence cases to what she believes is society's increasing acceptance of violence.

'As we diminish our fear or concern with using violence as a society, you see it used more and more as a tool that people use to solve problems,” Fortmann-Doser said. 'I think we are becoming desensitized to violence. I think that happens because of the way we perceive it and how saturated our society is with violence.”

Fortmann-Doser said she'd like to believe that more awareness about domestic violence - especially in light of high-profile cases such as the one involving NFL player Ray Rice who was seen on film striking his then-fiancee in an elevator - has erased the stigmas surrounding violence and has made it easier for victims to come forward.

But, she said, 'I don't know if I agree with that. What's changing is how people are talking about it.”

In the Ray Rice case, Fortmann-Doser said she has seen fewer instances of victim blaming, which she said is a positive.

On the other hand, questions about the case still focus on the victim - why did she stay?

'We're not questioning what on Earth makes this person think they can get away with this,” Fortmann-Doser said. 'That's not the question that's coming out first, and it should be.”

Fortmann-Doser said there's also not enough being done to protect victims, keep their abusers behind bars and make those victims feel safe. Not only are some batterers still able to contact their victims from the jail, but today's technology gives them 'unprecedented” access to the victims.

'They have more information, they have more access to the resources the victims depend on ...

They have more leverage than perpetrators of most other crimes,” she said, noting batterers often have access to the victim's finances and children. 'Until we address that, we're not going to move into a space where victims have what I call reliable safety.”

Building relationships

That is, in part, where Stevens comes in. Stevens said he follows up on every domestic violence call for service.

Building those relationships and rapport with victims allows him to connect them with resources at DVIP and helps the victims feel more comfortable to report further abuse or harassment.

'Sometimes it's nice to give it a couple of days,” Stevens said. '‘Are you able to talk? Are you in need of help or unsafe?' That's the benefit of following up afterward.”

Stevens said domestic violence victims can be offered assistance such as child care, housing or help with finances.

'I hook them up with my No. 1 resource, which is DVIP,” he said.

Stevens said he doesn't know why domestic violence numbers are on the rise, though he's hopeful it has something to do with victims being less reluctant to call police in those instances. However, he'll continue following up on calls and monitoring jail records to catch more violators.

Fortmann-Doser said the issue of domestic violence won't be truly addressed until that behavior is no longer excused and consequences for domestic violence are consistent across the state.

'The fact that you get two days (in jail) for assaulting your intimate partner and you could get more for stealing a car - we can absolutely increase and look at what the consequences are,” she said.

'To me, the dream is victims don't have to leave their homes. Their sustainability is protected and batterers are held accountable in a way that violence is never accepted in an intimate relationship.”