Sundays and a Domestic Dispute

You probably noticed I did not post anything yesterday. Someone mentioned to me that I should take Sunday off and I agreed. I am in a position where I can do that. Our police officers need to protect and serve 24/7, thus I did not always have the luxury of Sundays off. In the departments where I have worked, it was usually the “new kid on the block” who worked Sundays. Notice I didn’t use the term rookie.  You probably are thinking, why? Many police departments function solely under the senority system or some combination of senority along with awards and performance scores. An experienced and quite knowledgeable officer who transfers to a new department would be a “new kid on the block” in that particular department.

I personally was not fond of working Sundays because I usually found them quite boring.  In the jurisdictions I worked we didn’t receive many calls on Sundays. The calls we did receive were often domestics. Domestic disputes are generally the least favorite calls officers respond to. These type calls are also generally the most dangerous. I fortunately never received any major injuries at any domestic calls. Occasionally I might suffer very minor injuries. I will address domestic calls more in depth in the future because there is a tremendous amount of psychology and sociology that surround them

Today I will describe a domestic call I responded to one Sunday morning.

I was sent to a domestic call at a private residence. No weapons or violence had been reported so I responded alone with a back up officer in route. I did not wait for the back up officer’s arrival before walking up to the residence door. Once inside I observed four adults standing in the living room.  A female and male subject appeared older than the other male and female. I observed no weapons or signs of violence. I asked for an explanation of the problem; as usual all four people started to talk at once. I quieted them down and asked that they only speak one at a time and not as loudly as they had been.

Basically the situation was this. The older couple owned the home. The younger man in the room was their son and the younger woman his wife. The younger couple had been living in the basement of the home for several months.  There was no written contract; apparently the agreement was that the son and his wife would live in the basement and pay what they could afford each month to the parents for rent. Apparently for some reason the parents were mad with the son and his wife and wanted them to gather up their belongings and move out that day. The son and his wife were refusing to move saying they had been paying rent and would need a much longer notice before being evicted.

I explained to them I wasn’t an attorney and could not give them legal advice, but the current situation would be handled according to my interpretation of the state tenant landlord laws. My sergeant had arrived as my backup and was standing in the living room listening to the conversation.

I advised the parents that since they had allowed their son and wife to continue to stay in the basement for the amount of money they had been paying; that amount was apparently acceptable to the parents, making the parents landlords and the son and his wife tenants bound by the state landlord and tenant laws. I further explained those laws required a longer notification for eviction than one day. I suggested both couples would likely benefit from contacting an attorney the following day.

I don’t recall exactly what instigated it, but the older woman went after the younger woman, then the son went after his mother, then the father went after the son.  People were leaping over the sofa and it all happened very quickly. I moved into the brawl to separate the two women and my sergeant went in to separate the father and son. The mother was screaming and squirming within my grasp. Since the mother appeared to be the biggest instigator in this entire situation, I made the decision that I was going to arrest the mother. I advised her of the fact that she was under arrest and reached for my handcuffs. At that time the father and the son came running toward me. My sergeant and I fought off the two men while l tried to keep hold of the mother who was trying hard to get away from me.

After we got the people in the room settled down they realized the idea of throwing the son and his wife out of the home over the disagreement they had was silly and that everyone over reacted.

It was decided that I would not arrest the mother and take her to jail, but that I would write her a Notice To Appear to (NTA). This would require her to talk with the city attorney and possibly appear in court. I was told the following day the city attorney dismissed the charges due to the circumstances.

The muscles in my arms were sore and I had a few fingernails scratches on my arms, but I believe the situation was handled well considering all the circumstances.

Is there a better way to handle domestic situations then sending police officers in to bring about peace by requesting people leave the location or removing them through an arrest? Some cities send social workers or psychologists with the officers to domestic situations, should more cities do that?  How big a burden should tax payers bear because some families can’t solve their own differences and get along?

Until tomorrow,
Sally S