Prince George's County announces new protocol to address family violence

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, Md. — Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy held a press conference Thursday in Upper Marlboro to announce a new protocol to specifically address family violence. 

Under this new protocol, 911 dispatch and first responders will be trained to ask specific questions to identify if victims are in danger, and connect families to county resources to help both the victims and abusers.

“It’s going to look different,” Braveboy explained. “In some of these cases, we’re talking about minors, children who are abusive for a variety of reasons, and oftentimes it can be tracked back to mental health issues, and addiction issues.”

Prince George’s County first saw a rise in domestic violence homicide back in 2022. That year, there were 14 homicides, and only six were classified as family violence. But in 2023, 15 of the 22 domestic violence homicides were among family members. This upward trend is also showing up in the county’s felony assault numbers.

Braveboy says the approach is similar to how the county dealt with strangulation between intimate partners, and credits the approach to an over 40% decrease in intimate partner homicides. 

Prince George’s County Sheriff John D.B. Carr says if they want to see the same results with family violence, everyone needs to be on the same page, otherwise victims may fall through the cracks.

“We have a wonderful family justice center, that, to be honest in my opinion, is underutilized, even with the high numbers,” Carr said. “That’s one of our problems -- we have a lot of people working on the same issue and problem, but we’re not coming together to address it as a whole.”

Meanwhile, Braveboy says while this protocol can help bring relief to suffering families in the short-term, she’s also calling for a more long-term solution for the county.

“We need to advocate for a long-term treatment facility in our county,” Braveboy said. “We can no longer only rely on acute care treatment. It’s great, it’s wonderful, we need that as a stop gap, but long term, sometimes individuals cannot live safely at home.”

Braveboy says she hopes all the county’s first responders and law enforcement will be trained on the new protocol by the end of the year, but there are resources available now if you need them. You can head to the county’s website to learn more, follow our link to resources, or simply call 988.