A Balanced Collaboration: How Vermont Built a Protocol for Law Enforcement Response to Children and Domestic Violence

Excerpt: "Partnership and collaboration in name only has characterized many attempts to draft protocols or working agreements and build a coordinated community response. Vermont had a different experience in building a protocol to guide law enforcement's response to children on domestic violence calls. This paper examines the process they used, including areas of agreement and uncertainty, and introduces the protocol to a wider audience of interveners. It provides a starting point for other communities to explore their own response to children at domestic violence incidents, as well as an approach that can be used to examine other aspects of intervention."