DA Gonzalez and Mayor’s office to combat domestic violence, announce anti-stalking program to Brooklyn

May 4, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. Eagle file photo by Rob Abruzzese

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Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, together with Commissioner Cecile Noel of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence, announced on Friday that the office’s successful program that has increased identification and reporting of stalking in Staten Island and Queens is being launched in Brooklyn.

Gonzalez said, “This specialized training is an important part of our continuing commitment to protecting victims of intimate partner violence. If we can identify potentially dangerous behavior such as stalking early on then we can utilize all of our resources to try to intervene and keep this potentially criminal behavior from escalating to physical injury or death.”

Noel said, “The [Coordinated Approach to Stalking] initiative has helped to increase the safety of survivors since the program’s inception by increasing awareness of the dangers of stalking. With this expansion, the work of this program will provide an even greater number of police officers and district attorney’s offices with critical tools to recognize and manage cases of stalking, ensuring that they provide survivors with timely and informed assistance. We are happy to partner with the King County District Attorney’s office on this important work.”

The program is a collaborative initiative between the District Attorney’s Office, the Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence and NYPD t to increase the identification and reporting of intimate partner stalking cases, enhance stalking arrests and prosecutions and link victims to services. The initiative is a homicide prevention program linking stalking victims to critical services before the pattern of behavior escalates to physical assault or homicide. National statistics find that 54 percent of female homicide victims reported stalking to the police before they were killed by their intimate partner.

Stalking cases involve ongoing behavior that can include sending gifts and flowers, multiple phone calls and texts and repeatedly showing up at a person’s home, school or work. In New York, defendants may be charged with Stalking in the First Degree, a D felony; Stalking in the Second Degree, an E felony; Stalking in the Third Degree, an A misdemeanor; or Stalking in the Fourth Degree, a B misdemeanor, depending on the type of behavior involved, prior criminal acts and the age of the victim.

The Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence, NYPD and the DA’s Office have recently trained police officers and Brooklyn DA staff to identify stalking behavior and to determine when there is probable cause for an arrest; to understand the stalking statutes, draft stalking complaints and prosecute stalking cases; engage in risk assessment and safety planning with stalking victims; and to work with victims to document and preserve evidence of stalking incidents.

The Coordinated Approach to Stalking program was launched on Staten Island in 2014 and expanded to Queens in 2015. Within the first year of the program launch there was a 233 percent increase in stalking arrests recorded on Staten Island. It was then launched in Queens in July 2015 in four precincts and expanded to all 13 precincts by April 2016. After it was expanded to all precincts in Queens, there was a 177 percent increase in stalking arrests compared to the prior year.

— Information from the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office