HUNTSVILLE -
The Alabama Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the Administrative Office of Courts is working to protects victims faster.
Victims would normally fill out 8 pages of protection from abuse order forms and then have to wait on someone else to put all of the information into a computer then so and so forth.
In less than a month, those papers will be filled out online.
Here's why, domestic violence is a scary situation.
"A protection order is not going to stop a bullet. It's not going to stop everybody, but if there is protection order you can get a quicker police response and hopefully people will be aware that there is that violence going on," said Kathy Coleman with Crisis Services of North Alabama. "Most of the domestic violence is done behind closed doors."
Now people can seek protection from abuse orders that are going online.
The idea is for the response from law enforcement to be even quicker.
"It's going to assist us with the speed and efficiency with the way that we move cases through the system," said Madison County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Chris Stephens. "It's going to help us with the ability to flow that information to the agencies that it needs to go to in a much more efficient manner. In also of the tracking of that information."
It's going to help protect domestic abuse victims by making the system much more accessible.
Kathy Coleman with Crisis Services of North Alabama helps people who are going through these type of problems.
"We're hoping this will stream line the process," said Coleman. "The advocates will play the same role we always have, but we'll be able to assist them in entering the information online. So when they go to the courthouse to sign their affidavit it will already be online and then they can send that over to the judges and it will be done electronically."
The online system cuts out the middle man.
"It's a little bit of a difficult process in that once the document is completed it needs to be hand carried for point A to point B by a person then picked up by another person and taken to point C," said Stephens. "And then sent to the field for service. So you can see by putting it online making it accessible it while wipe out a lot of those hand to hand interactions that have to occur and save us a substantial amount of time."
Madison County gets 25 protection from abuse orders a week.
The system launches May 1.
Victims would normally fill out 8 pages of protection from abuse order forms and then have to wait on someone else to put all of the information into a computer then so and so forth.
In less than a month, those papers will be filled out online.
Here's why, domestic violence is a scary situation.
"A protection order is not going to stop a bullet. It's not going to stop everybody, but if there is protection order you can get a quicker police response and hopefully people will be aware that there is that violence going on," said Kathy Coleman with Crisis Services of North Alabama. "Most of the domestic violence is done behind closed doors."
Now people can seek protection from abuse orders that are going online.
The idea is for the response from law enforcement to be even quicker.
"It's going to assist us with the speed and efficiency with the way that we move cases through the system," said Madison County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Chris Stephens. "It's going to help us with the ability to flow that information to the agencies that it needs to go to in a much more efficient manner. In also of the tracking of that information."
It's going to help protect domestic abuse victims by making the system much more accessible.
Kathy Coleman with Crisis Services of North Alabama helps people who are going through these type of problems.
"We're hoping this will stream line the process," said Coleman. "The advocates will play the same role we always have, but we'll be able to assist them in entering the information online. So when they go to the courthouse to sign their affidavit it will already be online and then they can send that over to the judges and it will be done electronically."
The online system cuts out the middle man.
"It's a little bit of a difficult process in that once the document is completed it needs to be hand carried for point A to point B by a person then picked up by another person and taken to point C," said Stephens. "And then sent to the field for service. So you can see by putting it online making it accessible it while wipe out a lot of those hand to hand interactions that have to occur and save us a substantial amount of time."
Madison County gets 25 protection from abuse orders a week.
The system launches May 1.
