Meeting victims where they are, Chicago Police Department expands assistance in domestic violence cases

Sam Charles, Chicago Tribune on Aug 11, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

CHICAGO – It’s the most common 911 call in Chicago. Across the city every day, more than 50 calls are placed to report a domestic battery.

The frequency has largely held steady since the abatement of the COVID-19 pandemic — roughly 21,000 domestic battery reports every year, records show — though Chicago police officers have in recent years upped the number of domestic violence arrests.

Now the Chicago Police Department aims to deepen its response to domestic violence with the Office of Equity Engagement, established last year as a new prong in the department’s ongoing consent decree reform efforts.

CPD is expanding its Victim Services Program within the Office of Equity Engagement in the hopes of connecting more crime victims — especially those affected by domestic violence and nonfatal shootings — to housing and other resource assistance via a growing number of CPD advocates and caseworkers.

“We always want to meet the victim where they’re at,” Michael Milstein, deputy director of CPD’s Office of Equity and Engagement, said in a recent interview. “We’re never going to tell a victim, ‘Well, we can’t provide you any more services, we’re done with you.’ It’s really based on what that individual needs and how they want to engage with us.”

In 2025, advocates and caseworkers — 51 of them — were in contact with and provided some level of assistance to more than 7,100 victims, according to a recent internal report.

CPD is not trying to be a long-term service provider, but instead serve as a connector for victims and service organizations, leaders said. The advocates and victim specialists are not police officers, but have backgrounds in social work, with additional training provided by CPD. A victim doesn’t have to cooperate with investigators to receive assistance.

The engagement office’s latest efforts are part of a larger equity plan rolled out by CPD in recent years.

“Public safety is about our personal and communal health and well-being, and the Chicago Police Department is committed to enhancing safety by building and maintaining trust among all the people we serve,” former CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling wrote in 2024.

Studies have found that domestic violence can be exacerbated by external stressors like poverty, lack of opportunity and substance use. Predictably, CPD data show the greatest number of domestic batteries are reported in neighborhoods that already experience higher levels of violence and poverty. Accordingly, the department has placed advocates and caseworkers in the patrol districts that serve those neighborhoods.

City crime data show CPD logs about 22,000 instances of domestic battery every year. Predictably, the neighborhoods that see elevated levels of gun violence also have higher rates of violence within a household.

Though arrests have increased in recent years, nearly 80% of reported domestic batteries do not result in an arrest, records show.

CPD’s victim advocates will develop contingency plans for victims who live with their abuser, even if they’re not ready to press charges.

“What are some things that we can do to help that victim protect themselves a little bit more inside that home? What are some steps that we can start taking to maybe, in a couple months from now, actually be ready to press charges?” Milstein said. “It’s really based on what that individual needs and how they want to engage with us.”

Even with thousands of contacts made with victims last year, leaders of community-based social service organizations question the CPD program’s overall effectiveness.

Hillary Douin is the executive director of Connections for Abused Women and Their Children in West Humboldt Park, the oldest domestic violence resource organization in the city, providing services to more than 1,000 people each year, with thousands more in contact.

CAWC provides a continuum of services, including housing, counseling and legal advocacy. They also operate their own 24-hour domestic violence hotline, and the group’s services are also offered in two area hospitals and a substance abuse center.

Douin said the organization’s relationship with CPD can be “incredibly collaborative,” but she said most victim service referrals come from beat officers who respond to 911 calls — not CPD’s victim specialists.

The expansion of CPD’s victim services, Douin said, “is not something we asked for, and it takes resources away from the agencies doing the work.”

“With the implementation of the victim specialists, we didn’t see an increase in referrals, materially, we got maybe one or two a month from our victim specialist in the district that we have the closest relationship with,” Douin added. “It took several million additional dollars to create and fund the creation of this, these positions, money that could have just been, instead, given to the direct service agencies who are doing the bulk of the work with survivors.”

____