Virginia Code 9.1-1300: Domestic violence policies and procedures for law-enforcement agencies in the Commonwealth
The Virginia Department of State Police and the police and sheriff’s departments of every political subdivision in the Commonwealth shall establish an arrest policy and procedures for domestic violence and family abuse cases. Any local police or sheriff’s department is authorized to adopt an arrest policy that prescribes additional requirements under this section. Any policies and procedures established under this section shall at a minimum provide guidance to law-enforcement officers on the following:
Terms Used In Virginia Code 9.1-1300
- Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Person: includes any individual, corporation, partnership, association, cooperative, limited liability company, trust, joint venture, government, political subdivision, or any other legal or commercial entity and any successor, representative, agent, agency, or instrumentality thereof. See Virginia Code 1-230
- State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
1. The department’s arrest policy;
2. The standards for determining who is the predominant physical aggressor pursuant to § 19.2-81.3;
3. The standards for completion of a required incident report to be filed with the department including the existence of any special circumstances which would dictate a course of action other than arrest;
4. The department’s policy on providing transportation to an allegedly abused person;
5. The legal and community resources available to allegedly abused persons in the department’s jurisdiction;
6. The department’s policy on domestic violence incidents involving law-enforcement officers; and
7. The department’s policy on the handling of cases involving repeat offenders of family abuse or domestic violence.