I feel like we repeat this stat a lot but I don’t think that a lot of us really think about what this issue means apart from another reason why cops and the vertical power structures which accompany them are harmful.
“…But abuse at home is far worse for the wife or girlfriend of a cop. Who will she call—911? What if a coworker or friend of her husband responds? Police officers are trained in the use of physical force and know how to hurt someone without leaving a trace. They have guns and often bring them home. And if a cop’s wife runs, where will she hide? He usually knows where the women’s shelters are. Some shelter staff admit they are powerless to protect an abused police spouse. Her abuser may have training and tools to track her web use, phone calls and travels to find out if she is researching how to get help or, if she has fled, where she went.
The counsellors available to help other abuse victims are often clueless about how to help police spouses. “Victims of police officer batterers typically report that advocates do not appreciate how different their situation is because the abuser is in law enforcement,” writes Diane Wetendorf, a retired Chicago-area domestic violence counsellor who has helped hundreds of abused police spouses and is author of Police Domestic Violence: A Handbook for Victims. “It is disappointing and frustrating for a victim to have to educate the very people who she had hoped would be able to inform her.”
…Police departments often try to steer complaints into closed-door disciplinary hearings instead of the criminal proceedings that civilians would face. The internal hearings usually result in no more than a token slap on the wrist for the officer. Despite the high number of abusive officers, charges are laid in only a tiny number of cases—often, it seems, only those too extreme to ignore. In court, the officer has major advantages, too. He is usually at ease with courtroom procedures and testifying on the stand. He may have worked in the past with the prosecutor or judge. Officers called to testify are notorious for covering for each other. In police lingo, it’s called “testilying.”
