This new bill would give police departments the authority to issue protective orders over the weekend, when the courts are not open
Register Citizen has the report:
HARTFORD – The state House on Tuesday passed a bill that would help protect victims of domestic violence. The bill, introduced by state Sen. Andrew Roraback, R-30, will give police departments the authority to issue protective orders over the weekend, when the courts are not open.
Roraback said he had worked on the domestic violence bill for five years. A female domestic violence victim in Canaan gave him the idea for the bill. “It’s nice to see this bill on its way to becoming a law,” Roraback said Tuesday. “The legislative process can be cumbersome, but it does work, as it should in a democracy.”
Currently, police have no authority to stop someone who was arrested for a domestic abuse situation from going back to a home shared with the victim if they are released on bond on a weekend or holiday, Roraback said. “Victims of domestic violence need this protection,” Roraback has said. “Without this law, police officers are too often forced to release domestic abusers back into the homes of victims they’ve just assaulted. It is a dangerous practice and one we can avoid.” This bill also creates a new domestic violence crime of strangulation and allows police to seize stun guns from a person arrested for domestic violence. It also permits one parent to stay at home rather than be arrested, pursuant to a promise to appear at a later date, when children are present during a domestic dispute, according to a statement.
Now the bill, which passed the state Senate on May 24, will go to Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s desk to be signed into law, Roraback said. “I will encourage her to sign it,” he said, “and I am confident she will.”