Masto announces new programs to address domestic violence

Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto announced today the implementation of two statewide programs to address domestic violence in the state of Nevada.

One program is intended to assist law enforcement officials, the other to assist prosecutors.

Masto announced the programs at a press conference here today where she was joined by members of law enforcement, prosecutors, victim's advocacy groups and members of the Nevada Council for the Prevention of Domestic Violence. The press conference was held in conjunction with National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

As part of the law enforcement program, the Nevada Attorney General's Office is sending out 300 training CDs to be used by more than 16,000 law enforcement officials from across the state. The disc is an interactive training CD entitled "Domestic Violence & Elder Abuse Investigations" which was put together through a collaborative effort between the Attorney Generals Office and the Nevada Commission on Peace Officers' Standards Training.

The other program is aimed at helping Nevada's prosecutors in prosecuting domestic violence cases.

In 2004 the Prosecution Advisory Council initiated the Nevada Domestic Violence Prosecution Best Practices Project, which utilized federal grant funding to convene a multi-disciplinary advisory group that surveyed current prosecution practices and developed a statewide set of Best Practices to enhance victim safety and offender accountability.

Pilot implementation sites in several communities are now building the best practices into their current infrastructure with technical assistance from NVPAC. This grant is from the Office of Violence Against Women and is administered by the Office of the Attorney General. Those communities include the City of Henderson and Churchill, Eureka, Humboldt, Lincoln and White Pine counties.

This project is the first of its kind in the nation and the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women is producing a study paper to facilitate replication of the project in other states.