Brooklyn Center’s DART Program Helps Domestic Abuse Victims
Brooklyn Center Police credits the DART program with helping to bring down the number of domestic abuse calls. DART stands for Domestic Abuse Response Team.
In 2018, Brooklyn Center police officers responded to nearly 2,500 domestic-related calls for service and made almost 200 domestic violence-related arrests.
“We have seen a decrease since we’ve put our DART program in place, especially with our repeat calls,” said Sarah Fry, a Brooklyn Center police officer.
In 2011, the Brooklyn Center police department formed DART to address issues in the community. Officers work with victims and their families to provide safety planning and referrals. DART also makes sure victims understand their rights.
“We all kind of worked collectively to bring this to our administration so that we could work with the victims after an incident to do whatever we could to help them get the strength that they needed and to just feel safe,” said Fry.
The team includes police officers and civilian staff, patrol officers, investigators and community outreach employees. All Brooklyn Center Police Department team members volunteer to be a member knowing that this requires them to take on special duties in addition to their current job responsibilities.
