GUILDERLAND — Orders of protection are easy to get but hard to enforce.

Victims of domestic abuse — most of them women — often spend years finding the resolve to seek help and get a court order of protection only to still be pursued by their batterers.

The problem is manifold.

It took years for law enforcement, like the rest of society, to realize domestic abuse is not a personal or family problem, but rather a crime. Enlightened and competent officers, though, can’t provide around-the-clock protection for women with orders of protection who are stalked by their abusers.

Some places, like New York City, Florida, Illinois, and California, are using electronic bracelets to track domestic abusers. These bracelets, however, are for paroled offenders.

Guilderland doesn’t have such a system.
"With the state of domestic violence in Albany County, there’s a tremendous amount of room for improvement," Albany County District Attorney David Soares told The Enterprise. "Our response to domestic violence in Albany County, I have felt for a long time has been poor."

He has ideas to improve the system — many that include coordinating communication among police and courts.
The city of Albany has the first domestic-violence court of its kind. But, Soares said, "That’s just a drop in the bucket in terms of solutions. Other jurisdictions are light years ahead of us in terms of their response."
"The abusive behavior can come out in a lot of ways," said Dr. Karel Kurst-Swanger, a professor of public justice at the State University of New York at Oswego, who has written several books on domestic violence and police and court responses to battered women.

The life of a Guilderland woman provides an egregious example. Her name is being withheld by The Enterprise.

She says she was physically and mentally abused by her husband for years. When she finally left her husband over a decade ago, the abuse didn’t stop, she said; it took on a different form. The woman claims, and court and police records examined by The Enterprise bear her out, that her ex-husband has been stalking her and making false reports about her to the police.

The ex-husband could not be reached by The Enterprise for comment.

He was arrested in another town in 2003 for falsely reporting an incident and unlawful imprisonment. Police say he forced a woman to call 911 and report illegal activity at his wife’s friend’s apartment.

He’s also made many false complaints about the woman to Albany County Child Protective Services, the woman said.

Marian Logan, director of child protective services, says such tactics are uncommon.
"Situations happen where there’s folks fighting in a custody battle and they call the other parent in," she said. "But, it’s not that frequent."

Still, Logan said, social workers must investigate every complaint that comes in, whether they believe the report is false or not.

While the Guilderland woman praises Guilderland Police for enforcement, she is still terrified and feels hunted. She describes how her ex-husband approaches her in public places, like the grocery store, but at a distance just outside that set by the order of protection.
He just watches her, she says. "That’s scary," she said. "I just turn away. I try to totally avoid him."
She gave an example: "I’m walking down the street and it’s dark out and he drives down Church Road with no lights on...He could be in any car in any parking lot. I’m hallucinating and delusional over this...
"I’m living like a criminal," she said. "I have to hide my car; he vandalizes vehicles."

She gets her mail at the post office and stays with friends, she said, to avoid having her husband find her.
When an officer tries to serve her ex-husband with court papers, he says he’s someone else, the Guilderland woman said, so he is not served. "He’s constantly misrepresenting himself and lying," she said. "He’s so slick. He gets away with it."
She concluded, "I’m afraid he’s going to burn this place down. He should be locked up."

Flawed system

Orders of protection won’t work unless the abuser respects the criminal justice system, said Kathy Magee, a department director at Equinox Inc., an Albany-based program that offers counseling, protection, and legal help for victims of domestic abuse. (See related story.)

The Guilderland woman sought refuge at and got help from Equinox.

If the abuser is not afraid of being arrested or going to court, he won’t care about violating an order of protection, said Magee. Also, she said, orders of protection are not useful unless local police and judges enforce them.

Although the Guilderland woman has an order of protection against her ex-husband, since she can’t prove he’s stalking her, he gets away with it, she says.

Her ex-husband tried to kill her by stuffing cleaning rags with toxins in her furnace vent, she said. She fears that he’ll cut the brake lines in her car, she said.
"My friends say I need a bodyguard 24/7," she said. "I’m living like a petrified cockroach and he’s trying to stomp me."

Kurst-Swanger said it is common for abusers to find other ways to control their victims, after they have left.
"She’s certainly not alone," said Kurst-Swanger. "Sometimes he’ll stay fixated. He’ll find another way he can control her and bother her and terrorize her."

The Guilderland woman expressed frustration with the legal system and the court system.

She has sought help through the Albany County District Attorney’s Office. Her lawyer called two assistant district attorneys several times without response, the woman said.

Soares told The Enterprise that the system is greatly flawed, but he has ideas to improve it.
"We need to improve our communications in law-enforcement agencies within the county...," he said. "I’ve asked all these law-enforce agencies to fill out a survey to tell what kind of communication systems that they’re operating with."

Situations happen now, he said, where two people from Berne could get in a fight while in Cohoes. Since police aren’t sharing one records-management system, responding officers won’t know that the couple has a history of domestic violence, he said.
"I’d imagine that the response from that officer would be entirely different than what it is now, which is: You don’t know these folks; it’s a misunderstanding; and off on your way," Soares said.
With "high-risk couples," every time there is a phone call to police from that residence, he said. "It should be blinking red, so that the response from law-enforcement is immediate and we understand it’s critical and we shouldn’t take any of this lightly."Soares went on, "That’s where other jurisdictions are going and we need to get there. That’s 21st Century use of communications and we need to be more responsive and to save lives."
He cited Denver, Colo. as having "one of the most incredible responses to domestic violence."
In Albany County, Soares said, support that victims need is missing. "When her husband is the sole breadwinner," he said, "the wife may cooperate with [the district attorney] in terms of addressing the immediate assault. But, then, two weeks into the prosecution, when she realizes that she doesn’t have a place to live or rent and food and she’s got a child to support and he’s out of the house...those realities hit her. She’s less inclined to prosecute and work with us."
"The system’s not doing what it needs to be doing," said the Guilderland woman. "The judges are failing to do their part."

She cited a Guilderland judge, Steven Simon, whom, she said, won’t enforce the order of protection. When her husband appeared in town court for violating the order, the charge was adjourned in contemplation of dismissal. This means that, if he’s not arrested in six months, the case will be dismissed.

Simon, a 25-year judge who is seeking re-election this year, told The Enterprise that he can’t comment on specific cases. But, he said, his decisions in domestic-violence cases are strongly affected by the district attorney or town attorney.

Usually the district attorney speaks for the victim and makes a recommendation to the judge, Simon said.
"That’s pretty important because I don’t have investigative powers," he said. "...Then I listen to the defense attorney."

Simon’s sentences can range from adjourning the case to ordering the defendant to counseling or jail time, he said. If the offenders have a history of domestic violence, he said, they are often sent to jail.
If the offender violates an order of protection, Simon said, "Usually the penalty is more serious."
These cases are difficult, he said. "Sometimes you don’t know if it’s a valid charge or isn’t," he said. "The police help, too. They know."
Simon added, "If it’s definite domestic abuse, we take it very seriously."

Soares said that, if someone violates an order or protection, a judge can appropriately sentence him.
Asked about violators getting their charges pleaded down, Soares said, "There’s a problem when that happens, but there’s a lot of circumstances that weigh into a prosecutor’s decision to plea a case down. It’s not all the same."

For example, he said, sometimes an order or protection is issued out of criminal court, but family court says the husband can have contact with his children. The man calls the house and he’s charged with violating the order or protection.
"So, you have two competing orders from two separate courts," Soares said. "The family court, where there are children involved, takes precedent."
He said, "When it involves divorces that are messy, you have battles that occur all over the Capital District. There’s cases where you have one person as a complainant in Albany and the same complainant is a defendant in the city of Troy. If these systems aren’t connected, which they usually aren’t, how do you sort out those messes"...It requires people sitting down and improving communications."

Of having offenders wear ankle bracelets, Soares said, ADT security company has that type of service, but it’s expensive.
"When you have the synergy between law enforcement, the not-for-profit based organizations, and our politicians, you make programs like this work," he said.

Out of the house

The Guilderland woman’s upbringing is typical of many battered women; she was abused as child.

She was born in Europe and came to the United States with her parents and five siblings when she was seven, she said.

Her parents, especially her mother, were very strict, she said. She was not allowed to participate in after-school activities, she said.
In ninth grade, the woman said, she went to a school dance. Her mother found out, went to the school, and saw her dancing with a boy, she said. Her mother beat her, she said, and called her names, like "slut."
"I was not allowed to date and I was expected to get married in a white dress," the woman said.

At 15, however, she did get a boyfriend. He would later become her husband.
"He was abusive right away," the woman said. "But, he was my first boyfriend. My parents didn’t like him but I figured, they were so strict, I just wanted out of that house."

The woman had lost her virginity at 15, she said.
"The first time I got pregnant," she said, "he made me get an abortion. At the doctor’s office, he said he was my brother."

When she turned 18, she left the house and married her boyfriend.

Her mother had continued to be physically and verbally abusive to her, the woman said.
"My mother would say, ‘No guy will ever want you. Since you’re not a virgin, you’ll be alone forever,’" the woman recalled as to why she chose to stay with an abusive boyfriend. "I was petrified."
"Marrying him was my only way out," she said.

On their honeymoon, the woman was beaten, she said.
"I became married to someone worse than my mother," the woman said.
Asked about her father, the woman said, "My father worked and did what she wanted. My mother was like the man."
She said she was brought up to believe, "You married, had children, and did what your husband asked of you — no matter what."

Almost as soon as they were married, the woman was pregnant with her first child, she said.

A few years later, the woman gave birth to two more children. Still, she said, the abuse continued.
"Once...I was lying on the couch," she said. "He hit me in the face with a leather jacket."

Blood poured down her face and she couldn’t see, she said.
"I was so scared; I lost my vision," she said. "I crawled down the street, without shoes, to my aunt’s house."

The woman later came home, she said, when her husband threatened to burn down her aunt’s house.

Like many batterers, her husband was overprotective to the point of abuse, she said. He was very paranoid, the woman said. He would check the mileage on her car and calculate how long and how many miles it should take her to go to the grocery store, she said.
"He’d come home and say, ‘Somebody was here. I smell smoke,’" she said.

The woman was allowed to go to the grocery store, if she took her children with her, she said. When they got home, her husband would question the children. If they reported that their mother spoke to any man or had her groceries checked out by a male cashier, she’d get a beating, she said.
"He’d have me paged at the grocery store, too, if I took too long," she said. "I was not a wife, but a slave."

When her children all started school, the woman got an office job.
"He did not want me to go to work, but I did," she said.

She described each morning, as she got ready for work. Her husband would stand in the bathroom doorway and call her names, she said. He would get in her face, screaming at her as she put on her coat, she said.

The woman would pray that she’d make it out the door that day, she said. And, as her husband continued to scream, she’d run out the door and get into her car, she said.

Her husband clocked the distance from their house to her place of work. On the way home, when traffic was heavy, the woman said, she’d drive through red lights because she’d be scared she wouldn’t make her deadline.

At work, the woman said, her husband would constantly call. He once accused her boss of sleeping with her, she said.

Out of the marriage

Leaving an abuser can be very dangerous for a victim, said Kurst-Swanger. The victim has to have a clear safety plan before leaving, she said.

After years of living with her husband, the Guilderland woman decided to get out.
"I thought, how much worse can it be leaving" I’d rather be dead than live like this," she said. "I was scared, but I decided it’s bad enough here. I might as well step out."

Before leaving, the woman went to a domestic violence program at the Schenectady YMCA, she said.

She would go, for an hour at a time, when her husband wasn’t home, she said. She’d also call a domestic-abuse hotline when she was alone, she said.
"They taught me to be open-minded, that there is hope," she said.

Then, one day in 1993, the woman took her children, left her house, and didn’t come back.

She sought help from friends and from Equinox in Albany.

The woman’s children, too, received counseling, she said. The woman claims that her husband was physically abusive toward her children when they were younger, especially the girls.
"When my one daughter was little, he would pinch her," the woman said. "He hated her, maybe because she resembled me."
She put her children in preschool when they were three years old, to get them out of the house and away from their father, she said. "I was so afraid," she said.
She said she was determined not to repeat the treatment she suffered from her own mother. "I never raised my children like that," she said.
When she is upset, for example, with her daughter’s decisions, the woman said, "I just love her. I’m not my mother. I’m not going to pull her hair out."
"Any time you have any type of violence in the family, it impacts the children," said Kurst-Swanger. "It impacts them emotionally and physically. They have stress, trauma, and fear."

After she left him, the Guilderland woman’s husband had custody of the children two days a week, she said.

Harassment through agencies

Once she was gone, her husband immediately began harassing her in a new way, the woman said. He’d repeatedly call Child Protective Services three times a week, reporting that she wasn’t taking care of their children, she said.
"The calls would be like, ‘Her new boyfriend is having sex with her daughter,’ or ‘Her father is there doing drugs,’" the woman said.
"Child Protective would come and see nothing wrong," she said.

She pulled out a file, about two inches thick, of complaints and responses from Child Protective Services. The file came from a large box, filled with other paperwork dealing with her husband.
"Dealing with all of this is a full-time job," the woman said.

The woman had also saved essays her children had written. One assigned topic was for students to write on the bravest thing they had ever done.
The Guilderland woman’s daughter wrote, "My parents were separated and going thorough a horrible divorce. My father would have my sister...and I do some horrible things to hurt my mother....We had to write whatever my father said or he would beat me and my sister up....
"He had CPS running to our home like the fire trucks responding to a burning home blazing with flames of fire. The Child Protective Services and the Guilderland Police responded to our school....My sister and I were called in for questioning for these ongoing events. The agencies were concerned with our welfare, and safety....
"The bravest thing I ever recalled doing was telling the authorities how my father was threatening us, and making me and my sister do all things, and they were not true. I felt bad for my mom who was not at all a hurtful person. My dad knew my mom was innocent, and was not aggressive to fight..."

The Enterprise reviewed the Child Protective Services paperwork. After nearly each page of complaint is a form from a social worker that says the complaint is unfounded.
One complaint from the husband states, "Mother is dealing drugs and is using cocaine with her friends in the house with the two girls...present. The men are walking around with no clothes on, and the men have groped at them inappropriately. Mother is well aware of their fright, and she still continues with her lifestyle. There is serious concern for the safety and welfare of the children."
A form from Child Protective Services states, "Allegations of...sex abuse on adults are being unfounded due to the lack of credible evidence. Men listed on the report do not live in the residence. There is no evidence of drug use or of anyone dealing in the home. Mother is being harassed by the children’s father. No protective issues seen in the home at this time. Report is being unfounded."
Another complaint says of the woman’s daughters, "Both children are frequently driving a four-wheel recreational vehicle on the main roads in a reckless manner. (They have hit and injured one small child in the recent past due to their driving this vehicle improperly.) Their mother is aware of this, but continues to provide little supervision of the children when they are using this four-wheeler.
"The police have been called several times to the home. (They have torn up neighbors’ lawns and almost [been] hit by cars going by them on the roadway.) There is concern for the safety of the children when they are using this four-wheeler with no adult supervision."
In a response, a social worker wrote, "Case is unfounded against the wife for...lack of supervision. Children do have a four-wheeler, but are not allowed to go off the property with it. They have a large backyard with a fence. They are also required to wear helmets. Both children and mother disclose this information.
"No police agency has been called to the house, according to the family and the Guilderland Police. There are no neighbors named in the report whose lawns have been torn up."
Another complaint says that the woman leaves her children alone for days. "Child is smoking marijuana with the grandfather. Child is throwing wild parties late at night and the grandfather has no control over the child," the complaint states. "Mother is aware that the child is out of control and that she is smoking marijuana with the grandfather. Tonight the child had a party going on from 11 p.m. till after 2:30 a.m. Grandfather is disabled and not able or unwilling to control the child’s actions."
A social worker wrote, "There is insufficient evidence to substantiate the allegations....[The child] notes being upset because her father has a private investigator following her at all times. [The child] is using marijuana on occasion, but she does not have an addiction. Currently, [the child] is engaged through her school to address drug awareness. She was tested at Equinox, and the results were negative."
Another report states that the woman says her father is responsible, alert, and able to look after her daughter. "Grandfather denies smoking marijuana," the report says. "Grandfather notes he smokes cigarettes and smokes a pipe. [The child] denies having wild parties....The family is addressing their issues through counseling."

Lasting effects

Logan, of Child Protective Services, said the Albany County agency gets 3,700 reports of mistreated children per year. About 60 percent of those reports are unfounded, she said, because there is not enough credible evidence to prove the accusation.
"That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not a true report," Logan said.

She would not comment on the Guilderland woman’s case, but spoke in general terms.

If the agency receives numerous calls from the same person and all the allegations are completely unfounded, Logan said, social workers will encourage the parent to request a referral from them. The referral will then go to the district attorney’s office.

This typically happens three or four times a year, Logan said.

Most people who call with a complaint really believe that the parent is acting inappropriately, she said. People very rarely call the agency with malicious intent, she said.

For a typical complaint, she said, a social worker will visit the home and assess the safety of the children. The worker then has 60 days to determine whether the allegations are substantiated or not, she said.

If the social worker believes the allegations are true, Logan said, the family will receive a notice. In most situations, she said, the children are referred for appropriate services.

The situation is sometimes so dangerous that the agency removes the children from the home, Logan said. Currently, it has 329 children in foster care, she said. Half of those children were placed in foster care from the county’s probation department and the other half were found by social workers to be abused or neglected, she said.
Another of the Guilderland woman’s Child Protective Services reports, dated March of 1996, states, "Project Strive, a private therapist, and the school the children attend confirm that [the father] is intimidating and threatening and that [the mother] uses poor judgment regarding her children and her personal life. The animosity between the two adults has impacted negatively on all three children.
"...[the father] has been arrested multiple times for violating the court order of protection and for stalking [the mother]. There are reports from both Guilderland Police and Rotterdam Police in the case record. The case remains open."
In another, undated report, it states, "Case is closed...as there are no child protective concerns....Concerns surround [the mother’s] safety regarding husband...he has violated every order of protection and makes numerous false reports."

Although Child Protective Services saw no concerns, Kurst-Swanger said the impact of growing up in an abusive home will stay with the children forever.

Asked if the children are likely to repeat the patterns of abuse, Kurst-Swanger said this depends on many factors. Some daughters of abusive parents marry abusive men and some sons abuse their partners, she said. Some children stay away from that type of behavior because they were hurt by it for so long, she said.

The woman’s children are all over 18 now.

Seeking protection

Both the woman and her ex-husband have orders of protection against each other.

Most orders of protection are granted when a person asks for one, said Kurst-Swanger.

But, Soares said, there’s a lot of confusion with orders of protection because victims want them issued immediately. Orders cannot be issued unless the defendant is present, he said.
"So," he said, "sometimes when there is an assault and a report is made by a woman and the defendant is out on the loose, you can’t issue an order of protection because the defendant does not have receipt of it."

This can’t be changed, he said, because a person can’t be punished for violating a court order that he is not aware of.
"Orders of protection are important and have the potential of working. They can be a very valuable tool," said Magee, the department director of Equinox’s domestic violence services.

But, she said, orders of protection won’t work unless the abuser respects the criminal justice system. If he’s not afraid of being arrested or going to court, he won’t care about violating an order of protection, she said.
"Orders of protection can be effective," said Kurst-Swanger, "but they are just pieces of paper."

Barriers exist, she said. For example, she said, with some orders of protection, the victim has to be carrying it when her abuser violates it.

Also, Magee said, orders of protection are not useful unless local police and judges enforce them.
"Some police still nowadays disregard or don’t arrest someone because they’ve violated an order of protection," she said.

In other cases, she said, when police arrive at the scene, the abuser has already left. Many arrest warrants are ignored because police are so busy with other law enforcement, she said.
Orders of protection "are helpful to police when issued and used appropriately," said Guilderland Lieutenant Curtis Cox.
Asked about those who disregard their orders of protection, Soares said, "For those people, unless you put someone on surveillance 24 hours a day, there are certain people that are not going to listen to what anybody says, whether its the police, a judge, or a prosecutor....There needs to be a different response for those individuals."
"Overwhelmingly, I believe orders of protection work," Soares said. But, there are communications problems, he said. Orders or protection issued out of family court don’t always enter into the police’s computer system so when police arrive at a scene, there’s no record of the order.
"We in the criminal justice system have to do a much better job of improving our communications and delivering service and that kind of protection to our victims of crime," Soares said.

Guilderland Police get a number of reports from women who have said their orders of protection have been violated, Cox said. However, he said, he could not estimate how many per year.

In reviewing its blotters entries, The Enterprise found that, in 2004, seven people were arrested for violating orders of protection. Three of those had assaulted the complainants and four had violated the orders by calling the compliant or visiting her house. So far in 2005, seven more people were arrested under similar circumstances.

In 2004, eight orders of protection were requested in town court as a result of arrests, such as for assault or harassment. This year, at least four orders of protection have been requested because of arrests.

Each case is different, Cox said, but, generally, if someone violates an order of protection in Guilderland, they will be arrested. The person doesn’t have to be caught in the act by police, Cox said; the complainant can write a sworn statement saying the order was violated, he said.

Violating an order of protection can sometimes result in a felony arrest, but courts are overcrowded, Magee said. It becomes easy for an offender to plea down his charge, so his penalty is not that severe, she said.
"That’s the downside of how things don’t work," Magee said. "Things shouldn’t be just between the abuser and the victim. The state needs to say, ‘We won’t tolerate this.’"

In some places, Kurst-Swanger said, offenders are being made to wear electronic bracelets. Then, she said, police can tell when they are violating an order of protection.

Of the Guilderland woman, Kurst-Swanger suggested she look into getting a pendant-like panic alarm that has a system linked to the police. Then, she said, when the woman is in danger, she can notify police immediately.
Orders of protection, Magee concluded, "by no means guarantee personal safety." She said, "You can’t just assume everything is going to be okay. An order of protection says ‘stay away,’ but that doesn’t mean it will keep the abuser away."

False reports

As soon as the Guilderland woman left her husband, he stopped working, she said. He claims he’s disabled, she said, but she says nothing is wrong with him.

Her husband, who is in his 40’s, is unemployed and is collecting Social Security, she said. Although he claims a disability, he is not disabled, she said.

An acquaintance of the family told the woman that her husband was watching her closely.
"She said, ‘He talks about you every day. He knows where you are going and what you do.’ She told me my whole...schedule and I am scared to death," the woman said.

The woman said her husband has had women, whom she claims are prostitutes, call the police and falsely report incidents. He has also falsely reported incidents, she said, one of which has led to her being arrested in another town for threatening her husband. He reported to police that she said she was going to kill him, she said.

That charge was dismissed, she said, because she had a witness who was with her when he said she was making the threat.

He also accused her of being involved in a hit-and-run accident in a parking lot, she said. The woman got the surveillance tapes from the store there to prove that she was not in the parking lot that day, she said.

In an incident report dated April 29, 2003, in another town, it says that the husband was arrested for falsely reporting an incident, unlawful imprisonment, and second-degree criminal contempt, all misdemeanors.

In a court document, a police officer from that town states that, the husband forced a woman to call 911 from a gas-station pay phone. He forced the woman to report that, at his wife’s residence, people were being held hostage by gun and knife, the officer wrote.

On a different incident report, from Sept. 20, 2004, it states that Guilderland Police received a call from a cellular phone, from a woman who said she had gone to an apartment to buy crack cocaine.

When she entered the apartment, the woman claimed, a man held a gun to her head and she said she saw an unconscious female on the floor. The woman then called police, she said, because she was concerned about the safety of the unconscious female.
Police say in the report that they went to the apartment. "The complaint was found to be unfounded," the report says. "The victim [the Guilderland woman] has been the victim of similar incidents in the past..."
After further investigation, police say they saw the ex-husband, leaving the parking lot of the apartment with his headlights off. The ex-husband is violating an order of protection, the report says, and "further investigation will be conducted to determine the identity of the anonymous caller and additional charges will be considered against...the arrested [the ex-husband] for stalking."

The report then says that her ex-husband was arrested for fourth-degree stalking and disobeying a mandate for violating the order of protection.

A Guilderland court clerk told The Enterprise that, in June, these charges were adjourned in contemplation of dismissal. This means, that if the ex-husband is not arrested again before November, his case will be dismissed.

Lieutenant Cox would not answer specific questions about the ex-husband or about why he was not arrested on Sept. 20 for falsely reporting an incident. Cox referred The Enterprise to the New York State penal laws, which the Guilderland Police use as arrest guidelines.
Under the law for falsely reporting an incident, it says a person should be arrested if they know the information reported is "false or baseless and under circumstances in which it is likely public alarm or inconvenience will result..."
Anytime police make an arrest, they have to prove that the defendant committed the crime "beyond a reasonable doubt," Cox said.

But, Cox said, a person can be arrested without evidence if a complainant gives a sworn statement to police. It is perjury to lie in such a statement, he said.

Occasionally, police receive calls from people who are reporting something is happening that actually isn’t, Cox said.
If someone calls 911, Guilderland Police have a policy that they must investigate every report, Cox said. If someone reports something and then says, "Forget it," he said, police still investigate.

And, Cox said, if someone calls 911 and hangs up, police send officers to the scene anyway. With 911, police can track where a call is coming from, he said, but not necessarily the caller.
"If you call from a pay phone, we know where the phone is, but won’t know it’s you," Cox said.
"He’s here in the backyard. I have an order of protection against him. And I’m in trouble ’cause he says I tried to kill him," the woman said.
"I have to prove where I’ve been," she said. "He’ll file a false police report and have me arrested for something I didn’t do.
"Even though I got counseling and a support system, how much can they do if the system isn’t doing anything"" the woman asked.