Wifebeater-coddling Sheriff DAVID SHOAR's PR on Domestic Violence

After covering up the Michelle O'Connell case for more than six years, Sheriff DAVID SHOAR F/K/A "HOAR" emits a new "program" and propagates self-serving propaganda on domestic violence. What malarkey.

Rebarbative retromignent St. Johns County SHERIFF DAVID SHOAR f/k/a "HOAR" is a corrupt shameless narcissist who will say and do anything.





Sheriff's Office program provides peace of mind for victims of domestic violence
Posted: September 16, 2016 - 10:39pm | Updated: September 16, 2016 - 10:54pm


By JARED KEEVER
jared.keever@staugustine.com
A new program, developed by the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office to protect individuals deemed to be at risk of falling victim to domestic violence, has shown promise in its first six months.

The program uses GPS technology to monitor the whereabouts of some individuals who have been arrested for domestic violence, released and fitted with an ankle bracelet.

“We went live with it March 16 of this year,” Sgt. Kevin Cronin told The Record on Wednesday.

Cronin supervises the Special Victims Unit at the Sheriff’s Office. In a joint interview with Cpl. Jennifer Burres, who manages the new program, Cronin said they put about 12 months into developing the program.

After vetting available technologies and figuring out how to pay for it, officials also had to coordinate the efforts of the patrol and booking divisions within the Sheriff’s Office, as well as getting the State Attorney’s Office, Public Defender’s Office and judges on board.

“There’s a lot of moving parts and a lot of work that goes into coordinating that,” Cronin said.

While it is not the first program of its kind in the state, Cronin said their finished product is different from some of the others in that the individual accused of domestic violence pays the cost.

“We make the offender pay it as a bond condition,” he said.

Not all those arrested for domestic violence are required to enter the program as a condition of their release. The discretion is left up to the judge after a threat assessment is completed in the case. If safety is a concern, the individual can be placed on the program.

“On every domestic violence arrest there has been, and continues to be, a no-contact order similar to an injunction,” Burres said. “The GPS order is in addition to that.”

After the accused is fitted with the monitoring bracelet, officials at the Sheriff’s Office set up a virtual “exclusionary zone” around the other party’s home, place of work and frequented locations. The individual is then given a map of the 2,500-foot-radius exclusionary zones. If a zone is breached the system, which is directly monitored by the Sheriff’s Office, sets off a series of alerts.

“Their alarm goes off on their device telling them they are in violation,” Cronin said. “And we get an immediate alert to our communications center.”

“It sets off an audio and video alarm over there,” he added. “They immediately dispatch deputies to the offender and to the location where the victim may reside. They also pick up the phone and try and get that victim on the phone immediately.”

The Sheriff’s Office is currently monitoring 20 individuals.

Sheriff David Shoar said Friday he originally envisioned that the program would track the whereabouts of both parties. That would have set up a sort of “roaming exclusionary zone,” but doing so proved cumbersome.

“That technology is very difficult,” Shoar said.

The genesis for the program, he said, was a concern over the escalating nature of some domestic violence cases and a search for ways to protect those who may be repeat victims.

“If you look at a lot of these homicides over the years … if the victim had had 10 more seconds or 20 more seconds they could have made it,” he said.

Cronin said that buying those extra seconds are the ultimate goal of the program, but what he and Burres have found is that the program is also acting as a deterrent. Violating the exclusionary zone can result in being sent back jail if it is determined the breach was intentional.

“We think the deterrence factor is the biggest part,” he said. “In fact, we have not seen any additional violence with anybody on monitor since we started this program. Nobody has committed a repeat act of domestic violence.”

There have been violations of the zones. But that doesn’t always mean the other individual is as at risk, or even within the zone.

Getting the phone call and being asked if everything is OK is still a relief for the individual though, Burres said.

“Even with the violations that we’ve seen, yes our patrol deputies are making contact with these subjects, but at the same time our dispatch is immediately getting them on the phone,” she said.

That can be a “huge relief,” she added. “This is a great thing for them.”

Because the accused is constantly being monitored, the program can also cut down on false accusations, Burres said.

Shoar said that, six months in, the only real concern has to do with the cost of monitoring the program and the funding model. Some of those eligible for the program are unable to pay for it.

“That’s one of the challenges we’ve got to work on,” he said.

But overall, Shoar said, he was pleased with the track record.

“We are not trying to clutter up the system,” he said. “We want programs that are effective and you can measure effectiveness, and you can with this.”