The Legal Perspective on Domestic Violence

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Officer Sean Sayre:
He is the suspect and she is the victim. Then, please, I do that just as a matter of convenience and not to neglect anybody else who might fit this category. Okay? So, a former dating relationship, a spouse, or a former spouse. Okay. Engaged or formerly engaged, cohabitating. And cohabitation or former cohabitation, it’s not as important these days. There used to be a difference in the law between whether you were dating or cohabitating. So, but the thing that is important about cohabitating is there has to be some sort of relationship there. It can’t just be roommates. It’s got to be one of the other stuff, the spouse, or the engaged, or the dating. Or a common parent to a child. Okay. So if your relationship fits any of these categories, it’s going to qualify for the domestic violence laws. And then it’s inclusive of all relationships and not only the type of relationship, but this is truly one of those crimes that goes across all spectrums. It doesn’t matter money-wise, rich or poor, famous or not, young or old, domestic violence goes across all these.

Officer Sean Sayre:
So, say there is a domestic violence situation and the victim needs to call for help. So generally, they’re going to call 911, and here’s some of the considerations to be mindful of and not only with this book, but with any time 911 is called. So the first thing is you got to get the right agency. Okay? Cell phones can be a great blessing. Pretty much everybody has them. They have them with them at all times. The downside is when you call 911, the phone will pick whatever agency it feels is the correct agency based on what your location is.

Officer Sean Sayre:
So the biggest issue we run into is that if you’re in a neighborhood that’s very close to a freeway, oftentimes, the 911 call will go to CHP and vice versa. If you’re on the freeway, passing through neighborhoods, sometimes it’ll go to that agency. Okay? The problem is CHP will not handle a domestic violence call in a neighborhood. So they need to transfer you to the correct agency. And sometimes with CHP, even though you’re in San Diego, you may end up calling into a Sacramento CHP call center. I’ve heard of that happening before. So then they got to get you down to San Diego and they got to get you down to the correct local agency.

Officer Sean Sayre:
So, first thing they’re going to ask you is where you are at. And it’s very important to get this information because the phone will not generally tell the dispatch exactly where you’re at. So, and if we don’t know where you’re at, we can’t respond to you. So the call-taker’s then going to confirm information. And like I said, the address is where you’re at. Who’s calling. Okay? Because sometimes if we get the information from the phone, it won’t match up. And then the phone number so that if we’re disconnected, we can call you back.

Officer Sean Sayre:
I spoke to one of my dispatcher friends. They wanted people to know specifically that when you call 911, even though they’re going to be asking you a bunch of questions, any available officers will be dispatched immediately. Okay? The way it works is that as the call taker starts to take the information, it goes up to the dispatcher immediately, and then the dispatcher’s the one that’s in charge of sending the officers there. Okay? So even though it may feel like the call-takers doing nothing but asking questions and getting information from ya, know that available officers are still being dispatched while they’re asking those questions. Okay?

Officer Sean Sayre:
So you’re going to be asked, who’s there. We’re going to be looking for information. Who’s the offender? And if you’re not the victim, who’s the victim. Are there children around? Are there any other people who might be seeing this? Are you a witness? So we want to know who’s involved, obviously. Are there any weapons involved and not just have weapons been used, but are there any weapons available to somebody there? So especially if you’re at home, they’re going to want to know. Does anybody need medical attention? Obviously this is very important because that way if we know ahead of time that there’s going to be medical attention needed, we can start the fire department on the way there, and then they can stop nearby and wait for the scene to be safe for them to come in and render medical aid, if need be.

Officer Sean Sayre:
And then has this happened before? We’re looking for any background information, especially recognizing that domestic violence is cyclical and does tend to happen over and over again. We want to know if there’s prior incidents there, as well as we’re going to be doing some checks too, to see if we have any history there.

Officer Sean Sayre:
Staying on the line, if at all possible. This is another one of those key things my dispatcher has to pass along. Domestic violence situations are obviously very dynamic and they’re changing. Sometimes offenders are leaving. Sometimes the violence is continuing as they’re on the phone. All that is important information to help determine how our officers are going to respond. So if you can stay on the phone at all, while this is going on, so we can keep getting that information as the officers are responding, it can be very valuable.

Officer Sean Sayre:
And then staying versus leaving. This is a choice you have to make. Obviously the person who’s making the call and the person who’s being victimized at that time, their safety is our utmost concern. Everything else, if it’s safer and available to get away from the situation and that’s what needs to be done, then by all means, do that. Even if it means having to leave the phone behind and contacting the police a little bit later when it’s safe to do so. And staying, if you can’t get out or anything like that, you know that the officers are going to get there as quickly as possible.

Officer Sean Sayre:
All right. If you cannot talk, a couple of things. The call-takers are trained to ask questions mostly yes or no questions. If they get the feeling that a person cannot talk and is unavailable to do so either because the offender doesn’t know that they’re being called or they’re just trying not to give away a bunch of information, make themselves look bad. A couple of years ago, there was a famous incident that happened where some lady called a dispatch center and she wasn’t really free to talk. So she acted like she was ordering a pizza and the dispatcher was able to catch on to that. It’s wonderful that that worked out. Unfortunately, the rumor’s been going around that if you call in one and begin to order a pizza, they’re going to automatically know that you’re in danger. That is not the case, that’s not a technique that is trained.

Officer Sean Sayre:
So if you can speak a little more freely or let them know something’s going on, that would work better. I’m not saying that you won’t necessarily be able to get the point across, but again, the perception is out there that this is a train thing and it’s not. So just be aware that it might take a little while for the call taker to catch on if you try that.

Officer Sean Sayre:
Calling 911 and setting the phone down can be a great way to do it. That way we can listen in to what’s going on in the background and without the offender necessarily knowing that you have called 911. Again, the issue with that potentially is that, especially if it’s from a cell phone, we may not have an address, so we may not know where you are. So you’re going to need to find a way to get us some sort of information on where we need to send our officers to.

Officer Sean Sayre:
Dialing and hanging up. There’s a couple of things that can happen with cell phones. It’s from a home phone, we’re usually going to get a name, we’re going to get an address, and we’re going to know where to send somebody. Okay? Again with a cell phone, sometimes we don’t even get the number for the cell phone. We just get a generic number for the phone service. Sometimes we will get the cell phone number and we’ll just get a general area. So it’ll say within a football field of this cell tower is where the phone’s calling from. And as you can tell, there can be a lot of residences in an area, within a football field of a cell tower. So dialing and hanging up from a home phone, it’ll definitely get our attention. With a cell phone, it may not be as effective.

Officer Sean Sayre:
But there’s going to be two things. If we get a valid phone number, the call taker is going to call back and try and make contact with the person. If the person can answer, great. If the person does not answer the call back, then we will do what we can to try and locate, depending on what we hear and what’s going on in the background. But if there’s nothing that gives us a reason to contact the phone company further, to try and track everything down, there’s a good chance they’re just going to log it as a missed phone call and let it go there. So, understand that just because the call went through to 911, doesn’t necessarily mean that help is going to be on the way. Okay?

Officer Sean Sayre:
What if someone else calls 911? This will happen a lot with domestic violence situations. Oftentimes it’s neighbors. Sometimes, if it’s out in public, it will be somebody just walking by, see something going on. It’s just important to know that if other people call in domestic violence situations, we are going to respond and we’re going to check out the situation and make sure that we do our due diligence and offer any assistance that is available. So, a lot of times, whether there’s domestic violence going on or not, when we show up at people’s door and say, Hey, what’s going on, they take offense that we’re there when we did get a call and we’re still obligated to investigate those situations.

Officer Sean Sayre:
So how are the officer’s going to respond? The laws are very specific in California as to what we are required to do when we show up to these situations, that coupled with the fact that these are the most dangerous calls statistically for police officers, not only in responding to the situation, because there’s a lot of emotions going on in those situations. And a lot of times the victim just wants the abuse to stop. They don’t necessarily want the offender to go to jail or to get in trouble or anything like that, for a variety of reasons. So oftentimes where we go into a situation and one minute where helping the victim out, the next minute, the victims turning on us also. So. And unfortunately, domestic violence calls have also become popular for ambush situations with officers. So, the bottom line is officers are going to be very cautious coming to these calls and they’re going to react to the information that they have from whoever the call taker is and what they encounter at the scene.

Officer Sean Sayre:
So, if somebody calls in reporting that a male is chasing a female around with a knife in his hand, obviously we’re going to respond quicker and expect to be a more dangerous situation than if somebody calls in and says, hey, I hear my neighbors yelling. They do it all the time. I don’t know what’s going on, but I think they might be fighting with each other. So we’re going to give a different response to that.

Officer Sean Sayre:
And then this is a sticking point for us, often. People need to understand that we do have a legal right to search the property when we get calls like this. And the search, we’re not going to be going through dresser drawers or anything like that, but we do have a responsibility to make sure, one, that everybody’s safe in there. Right? Because there have been situations where we knock on the door, is everything okay? Somebody answers the door and beyond in another room or something, somebody is lying on the ground hurt or unconscious or something. And or when we go in there, we have the right to make sure that nobody is hiding to try and hurt the officers and everything. So just know that if officers do respond to a report of domestic violence, even if somebody is saying everything is okay, we’re still going to go inside and we’re going to check the premise to make sure that everybody truly is okay.

Officer Sean Sayre:
Generally, we’re going to separate the two parties to get statements, understanding that we don’t want the victim to be intimidated by the offender while we’re talking to them and it can help calm the situation. And we’re going to talk to the kids. So most of the time… Not most of the time, but often people will say, well, the kids were asleep. They were in another room. They don’t really know what’s going on. They didn’t hear anything. Kids are little sponges, man. They pick up on everything. And especially in these households. They very much are aware of what’s going on. So we’re going to make sure we talk to those kids.

Officer Sean Sayre:
And at the end of it all, if there is domestic violence, we’re going to need to document it. At the very least, we’re going to have to take a report to say that we were out there and what we found up to and including an arrest report, if we make an arrest. And gathering evidence is going to be everything from photographs of the scene, injury photographs, talking to witnesses and that sort of thing.

Officer Sean Sayre:
All right. So what officers are required to do. So California state law says that we have to have a pro risk policy. Okay? And basically what that boils down to is that if we go to a scene and we determined that there was domestic violence, if the offender is there, we shall make an arrest 99% of the time. There’s a very, very few exceptions where we may not actually make an arrest right at that time. But the law is very, very specific about the actions that we’re supposed to take out there. If an arrest cannot be made at that time, the officers that respond out to the scene, they’re going to take a report and document it. And then they’re going to pass it on to a domestic violence investigator. And then that investigator will conduct follow up from there.

Officer Sean Sayre:
So what’s going to happen with the follow-up? Well, follow ups can include completing the investigation. It might be gathering some additional evidence. It might be getting medical records. It might be tracking down and speaking to witnesses, investigator’s going to contact the victim at some point. One, to check on them, to see if there’s any services that haven’t been offered, or if they wished to take up on that they can help facilitate. Sometimes injuries become more visible over the course of a couple of days. So there might be some follow up there.

Officer Sean Sayre:
And just to kind of get a feel from the victim as to what they want to happen with that. At the end of the day, this process is about the victim. The victim may not necessarily get to choose whether or not charges get pressed, but sometimes they do have a say in that. And obviously, at the end of the day, we want to do what’s best for the victim and their situation. And it’s going to involve contacting the offender. Sometimes it’s just to get a statement from the offender, depending on what the situation was. Sometimes it may be going out and arresting the offender.

Officer Sean Sayre:
So there’s generally three different ways that the case is going to be resolved. One is either going to be an arrest, either at the scene or later by the investigator, or if the offender cannot be located, they may put an arrest warrant in the system. So the person will be arrested later. Sometimes if the investigator or the case is not super clear as to whether or not it’s going to be enough for the court to issue charges on, the case will get referred to the district attorney for review. And then ultimately the district attorney has the say as to what charges get filed and or if this thing will go to court. Okay?

Officer Sean Sayre:
So sometimes there’s a difference there. The legal requirement for an officer to make an arrest is less than what the legal requirement for the district attorney to send the case to court is. Okay? So an officer can have a perfectly good arrest out there in the field, legally, but the district attorney may look at it and go, yeah, it was a good arrest, but it’s not something that we’re going to be able to handle in court. So we’re going to dismiss the case at this time. Okay? So sometimes there is that disparity. But ultimately, the district attorney gets to choose that.

Officer Sean Sayre:
And then the investigator, when looking at the case, if it is very clear per district attorney guidelines, that they will not be able to issue the case, the investigator can have the authority to suspend the case at that time. In which case it will be on record, which is important because with domestic violence cases, domestic violence is one of the few types of crimes where previous cases can actually be used in the future, if it should go to court or something like that. So.

Officer Sean Sayre:
All right, moving along quickly because we’re running out of time fast, and I want to leave lots of time for questions for you guys. So common domestic violence laws. The first two laws on there, those are specific laws that deal only with domestic violence. Okay? So, that’s domestic battery with injury and without injury. The other crimes are just crimes that are on the books. Anybody can be charged with, but these crimes are commonly committed in domestic violence situations. And within these crimes, we can tag on the domestic violence to give at least the jail, a little bit more weight in terms of booking and stuff like that. Okay.

Officer Sean Sayre:
So just to highlight a couple of them, vandalism, you can vandalize community property. Okay? And a lot of times people will say, well, it’s my TV. I got the right to do with it whatever you want. Well, it’s community property. It belongs to both of you and no, you don’t have the right to vandalize that. So you can be charged with that. False imprisonment is keeping somebody in a place when they want to leave. Kidnapping is taking somebody from someplace when they don’t want to leave. Criminal threats, it’s something that’s misunderstood. Oftentimes the threat has to be a threat of great bodily harm or injury or death. That has to be the threat. And it’s got to be an immediate thing. So if the suspect is, 300 miles away and is like, I’m so mad, I could choke you. That’s not going to be a criminal threat because they’re not right there. And they don’t have the ability to do that. All right?

Officer Sean Sayre:
Stalking, everybody knows what stalking is. One of the sticking points of stalking though, is that it does have to have a criminal threat attached to it. Okay? If there is no threat of any sort, it’s just stalking type behavior. We can’t charge a crime for that.

Officer Sean Sayre:
Child abuse. So this is the one, a couple years ago, California passed state law that said if a child is a witness to a domestic violence situation and they are emotionally disturbed from that, things like, it causes them to cry, they’re hiding or something and we can show that, we can actually charge child abuse based on emotional trauma to a child. So that is the one exception for us being able to charge say, emotional abuse in a domestic violence situation, is when kids are impacted by that. All right.

Officer Sean Sayre:
Animal abuse is something that often occurs in domestic violence situations. Damaging a phone and witness intimidation. Obviously, you’re preventing people from calling the police and, or potentially witnessing afterwards.

Officer Sean Sayre:
And then this last one, argument with an element of fear. That is the very minimum standard for reporting a domestic violence incident. Okay? People are allowed to argue, but if one party has some sort of element of fear, for some reason, at the very least we’re going to document it. So it doesn’t mean we’re going to put somebody in jail because somebody was hurtful during an argument, but it does mean that we’re going to at least take a report to show that there was some concern there. All right.

Officer Sean Sayre:
Resources for victims. All right. So the officers at the scene usually given an information sheet, it has a list of all sorts of resources and or when the detective contacts the victim at a later time, they’ll go over those resources with them again. Those sources will include emergency protective order and temporary restraining orders. This is kind of a whole topic onto their own. Just know that emergency protective orders are orders that can be gotten from the court when the courts are closed. So nights and weekends and temporary restraining orders can be gained by the victim at the court during normal court hours. Counseling services, that will be available there and shelter services.

Officer Sean Sayre:
So, kind of the process the offender goes through. If they’re arrested, they’re going to go to a jail. They will be given a chance to post bail. If they post bail, they’re usually going to be in custody for 10 to 12 hours. If they don’t post bail, they’ll see a judge within three days. And if you’ve seen a show like law and order, that’s where they stand in front of the judge and say guilty or not guilty. If they plead not guilty, and the judge believes there’s enough reason to continue on with the court process, then they’ll schedule a preliminary hearing, which is usually within about 10 days.

Officer Sean Sayre:
And the preliminary hearing is when another judge reviews the case and looks at more of the evidence and here’s witness testimony and decides whether it’s enough to go to court. If it is going to continue on, they may order a criminal protective order, which is just like a restraining order, but it’s ordered by the judge. So, and they can do that with or without the victim’s consent. And then at the preliminary hearing, if it’s determined that there’s enough cause to go forward to the trial, they will have set up for the jury trial and then if they’re found guilty at the jury trial, they’ll get either probation and or in custody time. So, kind of the legal process in a nutshell.

Officer Sean Sayre:
So long-term considerations for the victim’s restraining orders, the good and the bad. The good is that it’s a great tool for law enforcement. If the offenders is beating on the front door and the officers show up and there’s a restraining order, we can arrest them and book him into jail for contacting the victim. If that restraining order is not in place, we basically just tell them to leave. And if they leave that’s the end of it, there’s nothing more that we can do. And restraining orders cover any form of contact, whether it’s phone, email, in person or that sort of thing. The bad is that it is just a piece of paper. It’s not somebody at the door to protect that person. And sometimes getting a restraining order can make the situation worse. So that is something that the victim needs to weigh out and decide what’s going to be best for them.

Officer Sean Sayre:
We do have to make an arrest on a restraining order. It is law. So even if the victim invites the person over and is good with that person being there, if law enforcement comes across it, we’re going to arrest that person for violating the restraining order. Okay? So there is that. A lot of people think that just because they may pass in public, that they have to be arrested. That’s not necessarily the case. If both people are in a public place and if the restrained person realizes it and leaves, there’s not going to be a violation of that restraining order. And a victim cannot violate the restraining order.

Officer Sean Sayre:
So we’ll get this every once in a while, where the person restrained will call us saying, hey, this person got a restraining order against me. They’ve been calling me, texting me, emailing me. They showed up. They keep asking me to come over. That’s not a violation. We can not violation the victim on a restraining order. So. And then that criminal protective order, the one that a judge puts in place, the victim can not decide to end that. So that’s something that only a judge can do. And we’ll run into this where a few months down the line, the couple’s back together, they’re hanging out with each other or living together. And this criminal protective order is still there. Even if neither party wants that. If the judge leaves it in place, that person can still be arrested for that. So.

Officer Sean Sayre:
And finally child welfare services. If kids are involved, even if kids aren’t involved, if the are kids in the picture of a domestic violence situation, even if they’re not there, we are required to report to child welfare services, that there are children and that a domestic violence situation occurred at some time in that household. At minimum, they’ll review the case and make contact with the victim. But their primary concern is the kids, understanding that the adults can make decisions as to whether they want to be there or not, or being in that situation or not. And the kids don’t necessarily have that choice. So they will step in and be those kids’ advocates. And they will take any action up to and including removing the kids from the homes if those adults can’t provide a safe environment for those kids.

Officer Sean Sayre:
All right, there we go. So that is a lot of information very quick. And many of those topics, it can be, an hour or so in and of itself, but we’re allotted a half hour time for this. And like I said, I wanted to make sure that we have lots of time for questions or anything like that. So what do you guys want to know?

Speaker 2:
So if you want to ask a question, go ahead and unmute your button down at the bottom and then ask a question.

Officer Sean Sayre:
Not, necessarily specifically a home life. Well, I mean, it’s focused on the relationship that occurs in there. So, to expand on that just a little bit, and here I can even… Let me go back to, then I’ll tell you what… Let me go back so we can get those relationships up there. So basically what the courts have determined through this is that traditionally, these types of relationships for all the dynamics that go into it, in terms of people not leaving either for emotional reasons or money reasons, or employment reasons, or kid reasons or something like, that these are relationships where violence occurs over and over and over again. And, and as they show with this, each time the violence occurs, it becomes more and more dangerous, I think greater and greater.

Officer Sean Sayre:
So they’ve determined that in this setting with these relationships, that the laws need to be more strict and that the way the courts are able to prosecute these cases and the information they can take into consideration are wider ranging. Okay? So with regard to that, it’s a very narrow scope. Okay? Now that the family courts recognized domestic violence on a broader spectrum in that they widen it to say people like aunts and uncles, parents and kids. Right? If a child beats up a parent, it will not be considered domestic violence for the purposes of arresting that person and booking that person into jail. But the courts down the line may term that as domestic violence for the purposes of what they decide to do through family court and stuff like that.

Officer Sean Sayre:
So does that kind of make sense? Now in terms of tying into the end of the riots and everything like that, I mean if, again, if this relationship exists between two people that are having an argument, if they’re in the middle of a riot or something like that, then we’re going to apply this relationship. I mean, once you have these relationships, if you were dating in high school and broke up and you’re at the 20 year reunion and you get in a fight, it’s still domestic violence, even though you dated 20 years ago. So once those relationships are there, you always in that domestic violence category with that person. So, that will not change.

Officer Sean Sayre:
I don’t know. Like I said, I don’t know. In terms of what’s going on with the riots and stuff like that, I don’t know if this necessarily specifically plays a part in it. It’s probably more relevant to what we were seeing with the COVID-19 lockdowns and everything like that. Because now you have situations where, offenders who may normally get upset at their spouse, might tear out of the house and go down to the bar for the night or something like that to blow off steam or be with their friends. Well, now they couldn’t go to the bar. And so now they’re forced into a situation where they’re stuck at home. One of the concerns that we were seeing with the lockdown with the COVID-19 was that now you’re basically placing people in a situation where you’re… I’m not saying you’re forcing the domestic violence, but you’re going to see an increase in domestic violence because the offenders don’t have other outlets and they’re going to take that out on their partner.

Speaker 2:
Sean, we have one question on the chat.

Officer Sean Sayre:
Sure.

Speaker 2:
Does the next door neighbor’s voice recording on an iPhone, a verbal and hitting victim count as evidence in court?

Officer Sean Sayre:
Absolutely. Absolutely, it does. And as you step out of the immediate, I guess you could say situation, you’re going to gain, how am I going to put this? You’re going to gain better witness credibility, I guess is the way to put it. So the courts kind of recognized that if you are a neighbor who really doesn’t have any vested interest in the household and you are calling up 911 saying, hey, I hear the people next door, they’re arguing. It sounds like the woman’s getting hit and she’s yelling, help me, help me and the officer shows up, one, they’re going to talk to you. And the fact that you are a third party reporting that lends a little bit of weight and a little more credibility to you reporting the situation. And then absolutely if you have recorded audio of that woman screaming and yelling, and even the potentially the sounds of that person being hit or something, absolutely, that’s a very good evidence that we can use in court. Because ultimately when it comes to court, it’s what you can prove.

Officer Sean Sayre:
The way the court process works is that if the jury receives instructions, that if there is a plausible explanation for what happened, and it comes down to whether to believe one story or not, that they have to err on the side of the story that the offender gives.

Officer Sean Sayre:
So for example, you show up and the woman has a black eye. And the woman’s saying he hit me and his story is, nope, it was dark. She tripped over the end of the bed and hit her face on the nightstand and that’s what gave her the black eye. If we, as police can not gather enough evidence to prove 100% that he hit her and that she did not trip, then the jury is instructed that they have to side with the offender’s story that she tripped and fell and hit the nightstand. So there’s some frustration on the level of officers, because we can make a good arrest. We can get statements, we can get photos and stuff like that. But if we don’t have that little bit of evidence, that 100% proves he hit her as opposed to her necessarily tripping and hitting her face on the nightstand. Even though everybody may look at that situation and go look, we know she didn’t trip, if we can’t prove that 100% to the jury, the district attorney will not issue that. So we can have a perfectly good arrest, but it may not go to court.

Officer Sean Sayre:
Yes. Yeah. Emotional abuse can be, can be very, very hard to prove. And again, from a law enforcement standpoint, there’s no laws that address emotional abuse. So oftentimes we will get calls from family or friends saying, hey here’s the situation. I just talked to my sister and he’s always yelling at her. He’s always calling her a bitch, he’s always screaming at her telling her she’s worthless and everything, and he doesn’t let her out of the house. She never has any money. We’re talking financial controlling, kind of physical controlling in terms of who she can see and stuff. Unfortunately from law enforcement, I can’t go in there and I can’t arrest a person for doing all those things. Right? We only have authority to make arrest and to intervene when it gets physical, it gets to that breaking point.

Officer Sean Sayre:
So now in the case of say, potentially like a military, if there’s some other authority there like a military or some other line of work that has that sort of authority then potentially they may have some way to work with it. But again, that’s going to be outside of our realm.

Officer Sean Sayre:
Now, investigators, they can put that information in a report so that if he is arrested for something physical, that can help complete the picture, so to speak. And as an investigator, if you’ve receive training in those sorts of things, you can put that in the report and it’s almost like putting an opinion in a report and that can help give a little bit more weight to it. Again, while it may support the fact that there was physical abuse, there’s still not going to be able to add any additional charges or anything like that for the emotional abuse or anything.

Speaker 2:
Everybody, we only have a few minutes left. So will do only one or two more questions, but we got to wrap up in about two to three minutes. So.

Officer Sean Sayre:
Sure. If we get a call that, hey, we hear some arguing and yelling going on and somebody may be being hit. Like I said, even if it’s a neighbor or something like that, that can be enough authority for us to go in and at least make sure that everybody’s okay. Now, it doesn’t mean that we’re going to walk up and we’re just going to kick in the door. I mean, depending on how the call comes in, if we knock on the door and there’s absolutely no answer and everything seems quiet and it’s just, hey, I was walking by and I heard an argument, we’re probably going to walk away at that point and let it be as it is.

Officer Sean Sayre:
If it’s something a little bit more serious, like, hey, we heard some yelling, we heard some screaming. We heard somebody say, stop it. And it sounded like somebody was getting hit and we’re there in a pretty reasonable amount of time. And we talked to whoever the neighbor was and they said, no, nobody’s come in. Nobody’s gone out. This happens all the time. And now nobody’s answering. That may give us a little more reason to force the issue a little bit more, especially if it’s like an apartment situation or something where we might be able to get a key and go in, or if we run some records checks, and we find out that there’s a history of domestic violence in there, that can give us a little bit more authority.

Officer Sean Sayre:
But yeah, generally speaking, just the call itself, letting us know that there was the potential for some sort of physical abuse or something will give us enough to at least… And like I said, we’re not digging through sock doors and stuff like that. It’s nothing where we’re going to be doing a find search. It’s literally going to be just checking out each room, maybe looking under the beds and stuff. Just checking real quick, the places where there might be a person hiding or somebody lying, who might be unconscious or something like that, just to make sure that that nobody’s lying hurt in there.

Speaker 2:
All right. Well, our time is up. You put your number on the last slide there. Are you okay if people text you, officer Sayre?.

Officer Sean Sayre:
Absolutely. Let me bring that back up. I’ll put that back up there. There we go.

Speaker 2:
Can you guys-

Officer Sean Sayre:
So, can you see my work email?

Speaker 2:
I was just making sure everybody could see the slide. Can everybody see the slide? It says questions and the phone number?

Officer Sean Sayre:
Down at the bottom. So it’s S and then [email protected]. That’s work email. And then that is my work cell phone number there too. So email or text messages are the best way to get a hold of me. It doesn’t have to necessarily be domestic violence related. If you have some other law enforcement related question or need to talk about a situation or something like that, please feel free to get in touch with me. I’m working nights right now on the weekends. So if it takes me a little bit to get back to you, please understand. But I definitely will get back to you. And then just shoot me a little, “hey, I saw you on the rhombus talk or something”. Just that I can put it in context and know where I had contact with you. And I’ll be more than happy to get back to you and talk to you offline.

Speaker 2:
Okay. Let’s wrap up. I want to thank officer Sayre for taking this time to present to us and for a good presentation. And I hope you all enjoy the rest of your day.

Officer Sean Sayre:
Thank you all very much for being here. Take care.

Speaker 2:
Thank you.

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The Legal Perspective of Domestic Violence by Officer Sean Sayre