FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                         Contact:  Karla Weikal
October 15, 2008                                                                                  

 

SHERIFF REMINDS VICTIMS OF NOTIFICATION HOTLINE

 

October marks 21st commemoration of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month and as part of that, Sheriff Hall encourages victim to register for free service.

 

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall wants to remind victims of the Victim Information and Notification Everyday (VINE) program.  The program is designed to reach-out and bridge the gap between crime victims and the criminal justice system.

Victims can call a 24-hour automated hotline and register at 800-456-3202.  The system provides up-to-the-minute information regarding all offenders in the Davidson County jail, including the CCA/Metro Detention facility.  In addition, arresting agencies in Davidson County provide program information directly to victims.

“Victims can utilize a toll-free hotline to quickly check on the jail location of their offender, or to register for notification upon the offender’s release.  Since 2000, more than 37,000 victims have registered and the system has made over 460,000 calls,” Hall said.

In addition to providing the VINE system, the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office has worked to improve the efficiency of serving orders of protection.

“In years past, the order of protection warrant was served as soon as an officer could get to the office, get the warrant from the courts, and then go out and physically find the defendant.  Today, upon receiving the paper, we immediately make a phone call and notify the defendant that he or she has had an order of protection filed against them.  Most jurisdictions do not make notification that quickly,” Hall said. “It is important for us to do everything we can to protect victims of crime.  Both of these efforts may go beyond what is legally required of sheriffs, but it is the right thing to do.”

VINE monitors the status of inmates by way of an automated interface with computers at the jail.  The 24-hour a day system immediately notifies a crime victim when the person by whom he or she was victimized has a change in custody status.

Notification calls continue for 24 hours or until the correct victim has been contacted.  If a victim registers with VINE on their own, they are asked to select a Personal Identification Number (PIN) and enter it when called by the system.  If a victim is registered through a local law enforcement agency, that PIN is the last four digits of the complaint number.

“This system is only as good as the information it receives. I would say the biggest problem we have encountered since the inception of this program is people providing incorrect information.  Victims need to provide current and correct information.  If a victim must provide a relative’s telephone number, they should inform that relative and have a plan worked out when the notification calls begin,” Hall said.

Prior to the program starting in 1997, sheriff’s office employees were manually tracking over 3,000 inmates for notification purposes and found that to be a challenging and labor-intensive method.  VINE was adopted to establish an efficient and reliable method of notifying crime victims.

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