Introduction to the Toolkit
This toolkit has been developed by a team of domestic violence advocates from across California in collaboration with the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence. The initial idea for the development of this toolkit came from the Partnership’s 2014 Statewide Public Policy Meeting, in which advocates discussed the need to address the lack of consistent enforcement of domestic violence restraining orders.

We acknowledge that there are barriers that law enforcement encounters in their efforts to address the violation of domestic violence restraining orders including a lack of prosecution of violations by some district attorney’s offices, jails that are over-crowded in some communities, and in some cases, difficulty in arresting the perpetrator.

We further acknowledge that our law enforcement partners are often the first responders to restraining order violations and thus have important information to share about a violation. They also have a duty to write an incident report based on California Penal Code §13730(a) which states, “All domestic violence-related calls for assistance shall be supported with a written incident report . . . .” and to make an arrest when there is probable cause to believe that a person violated a restraining order outside an officer’s presence (Penal Code §836(c)(1)).

The goal of this toolkit is to offer resources, examples and guidelines for domestic violence advocates to work effectively together with law enforcement partners to increase the safety of victims by holding people accountable for violating domestic violence restraining orders.
This document as currently written is reflective of the expertise and current wisdom of this working group. That being said we acknowledge that this topic is ever evolving and welcome any input that would enhance the materials present. Please contact policy@cpedv.org to share additional resources for this effort.