- Domestic violence calls are among the most dangerous for police officers.
- Retired chief Chris Bertram highlights the need for backup and strategic approaches.
- Social workers can help but require coordination and funding for effective involvement.
TREMONTON — As the community copes with the tragic shooting that ended the lives of two police officers, a retired police chief shared some of the different policies and protocols for domestic violence calls.
Chris Bertram, former Unified deputy police chief, said domestic violence calls are one of the most dangerous events police respond to because of high emotions. He said that what we know about Sunday night's incident tells us that the situation was volatile.
According to Brigham City police, a Tremonton-Garland officer was talking with someone in a home when Ryan Bate allegedly came out, shot and killed the officer. Then, he shot another officer, police said.
A sheriff's deputy and his police K9 were then hit in their vehicle nearby.
Bertram said most police departments require two officers to respond to a domestic violence call. He said often times, officers have to wait until their backup arrives.
"They will sometimes wait to see if they hear arguing going on as they approach where the domestic is occurring," he said. "A lot of times, they split into two, so again, they're not in one area. They're split so that if something bad happens, they can react."
He said officers have to consider a lot of factors before they make themselves known.
"Are there divorces? Are there infidelity issues? Are there financial issues? Are there children's issues?" Bertram said.
"We've never been there, I never heard any problems here, and I'm approaching it for the first time," he continued. "Then I have to base it on why we're getting the phone call. Who's made the call? Are they in the house? Are they outside the house of the neighbors? Is somebody passing by? Is it a relative that is now worried about what's going on?"
If they're familiar with the people inside, they might choose to go up and knock on the door casually.
"These are, in fact, sometimes your neighbors as a police officer," Bertram said. "We have more of a relationship. We have maybe even trust in social capital with some of these individuals. We may feel that we have a rapport, and so we may decide that it may be easier just to approach and knock and be human about it."
Bertram said having social workers on scene can help in situations like this one, but it takes a lot of coordination to include them safely.
"Let's be realistic," he said. "Can a social worker be standing right next to the officer when they walk up to a volatile domestic?"
He said officers first need to make sure the scene is safe and doesn't put the social worker in harm's way.
"They have to worry about their partner, they have to worry about people that are in the area and other people that are involved in this, but now I've got another person that I need to worry about," Bertram said.
Bertram said having a social worker on scene could delay response times. It depends on where they live or where they're located, and where they're dispatched to.
He said that with firefighters, they operate on call-in stations, but even they stay off a scene until police deem it safe.
"If you can involve the social workers, great idea," Bertram said. "But let's look at it logistically because are they going to be like firemen that just respond out to the different places?"
He said that having social workers also depends on funding.
"I'm a big fan of collaboration and making sure that if one police department can't afford it, as you see with mutual aid, you can put things together by county, you can put them together by multiple cities," Bertram said.
The killing of these two Tremonton officers is still under investigation. Bertram said time will tell if everything that could've been done was done, and if any changes need to come from this.
