FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
HARRISBURG, PA, (October 9, 2024) – The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence (PCADV) stands behind advocates at its local domestic violence shelter program, Blackburn Center, who bravely sought to ensure victim safety and adherence to victim confidentiality in response to the actions of the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) from the Greensburg Barracks and Westmoreland County Children and Youth Services on October 1, 2024.
Blackburn Center advocates acted in accordance with PCADV policy and Pennsylvania law. All charges filed against Blackburn Center advocates in relation to this incident are baseless and unwarranted.
Confidentiality and privilege are essential pillars of domestic violence services. They are absolutely necessary for ensuring victim safety, and for that reason, they are enshrined in Pennsylvania and federal law.
Under the Protection From Abuse (PFA) Act, domestic violence advocates cannot be compelled by a court or by law enforcement to testify or disclose information about their clients to authorities. Only the client (the victim) can consent to waive this privilege.
The federal Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) also places strict requirements on the confidentiality and protection of victim information.
As a PCADV member program, Blackburn Center is a state-recognized domestic violence shelter with confidentiality and legal privilege protections under the PFA Act and VAWA.
“The staff of Blackburn Center has the privilege of advocating for domestic violence victims on a daily basis. This is difficult and stressful work. Blackburn Center supports our staff and believes that the legal process will show that the situation was handled appropriately,” said a representative of Blackburn Center.
Confidentiality is especially important to provide safety and support to victims whose abusers may have positions of power within the community, such as within the law enforcement, local government, or child welfare systems. These systems can be weaponized and used as further tactics of abuse against victims.
PCADV is appalled at the troopers’ lack of knowledge of and adherence to legal privilege and confidentiality in this incident. The unprecedented and hostile actions of the Pennsylvania State Police demonstrated a lack of concern for victims’ safety, violated PA law, and allowed themselves to become yet another system perpetuating abuse against victims in the community they are sworn to protect.
Rather than wait for the shelters’ leadership to arrive – who expressed a willingness to work with PSP – troopers proceeded to use a crowbar to break into the shelter where domestic violence victims and their children had sought safety.
PSP’s pretext for forcefully breaking into a domestic violence shelter was that there was allegedly a child in imminent danger. There was no child in danger at Blackburn Center, imminent or otherwise, and there was nothing in the emergency custody order to indicate imminent danger to the child.
Domestic violence advocates are mandated to report child abuse to authorities. They are trained to recognize situations in which children are in potential danger and are legally required to report it. Situations where a victim may cause harm to themselves or others are the ONLY exceptions where domestic violence advocates are legally permitted to break their confidentiality obligations. If a child was in danger at the shelter, the advocates would have followed procedures to report it to the proper authorities and ensure the child’s safety.
Blackburn Center, as a federal- and state-funded program, is monitored closely to ensure their compliance with federal and state law and standards of care.
The only danger to this child (and to all of the victims, children, and staff at the shelter) was PSP sending an unnecessarily large number of armed troopers to forcefully break into a domestic violence shelter rather than wait 20 minutes for the organization’s leadership to arrive and assist with the situation in a peaceful and collaborative way.
Beyond the immediate threats to the safety and well-being of victims, their children, and advocates at Blackburn Center’s shelter, the conduct of PSP will have rippling effects on victims throughout the community and could prevent victims from seeking help and safety in the future.
PCADV calls for all charges against Blackburn Center advocates to be dropped. Furthermore, we expect PSP and Westmoreland County to ensure all their employees who may interact with domestic violence victims fully understand the law and confidentiality to prevent further actions that threaten victim safety. Thorough training in the nuances of domestic violence and implementation of PCADV’s Lethality Assessment Program could help prevent PSP and other state, county, and local agencies from causing future harm in their communities.
Out of decency and respect for the individual troopers’ privacy and safety, PCADV has decided to refrain from naming them or sharing where they live in public statements. We ask that others provide the same respect for the privacy and safety of all individuals involved.
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Founded in 1976, PCADV is the nation’s oldest statewide domestic violence coalition. Each year, its network of 59 local domestic violence programs provides free and confidential direct services to nearly 90,000 victims and survivors of domestic violence and their children in all 67 counties of the Commonwealth. Together, local programs and the statewide Coalition work in collaboration to deliver a continuum of services, support, and systems to help victims and survivors find safety, obtain justice, and build lives free of abuse.
PCADV Media Contact:
Lauren Duff, Director of Communications
ld***@pc***.org
717-545-6400 x 129