Volusia County will create Florida’s first database to track convicted domestic abusers in an effort to reduce dating violence.
The Volusia County Council on Tuesday night voted 6-1 to establish the database, which will include anyone convicted of domestic abuse in the county in the past 10 years. It will use publicly available data from the Volusia County Clerk of Court.
Staff don’t expect it to require significant money or employee time.
Council members had been eyeing the measure since January, led by District 2 council member Matt Reinhart, a former corrections officer. He took an interest after he said a daughter of his became a victim in 2017.
“What dad wants to get that flippin’ phone call saying that somebody took a gun to her? And hit her?” Reinhart said. “We could have been having a lot different conversation if it would have killed her.”
Now, Reinhart serves on the board of the Domestic Abuse Council of Volusia County. He and other proponents said a database would empower the community to make informed choices about care providers and dating.
“A centralized, user-friendly database would provide residents with an additional tool to make informed decisions before entering into relationships, allowing individuals into their homes, or hiring caregivers for children, seniors, and other vulnerable family members,” Edgewater Mayor Diezel Depew wrote in endorsing the proposal with the rest of his council.
Five other local endorsements were included in the meeting packet, from Daytona Beach, Daytona Beach Shores, Holly Hill, Ponce Inlet and Ormond Beach.
Other domestic violence advocates and survivors testified in support of the measure. Though in theory all of that information is available to the public on court databases, they said, a county database would make that information easier to find and navigate.
“I myself am a survivor of domestic abuse,” Ormond Beach resident Jennifer Kelly said. “I'm sure I wasn't my abuser's first victim, nor will I be his last. But moving forward and starting over, having a tool like this easily available could save my life.”
Volusia has the fourth-highest rate of domestic violence among Florida counties, behind Okeechobee, Bay and Madison counties, according to data from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Volusia’s rate is nearly double the statewide average.
And people in Volusia County make about 4,000 domestic violence reports annually, Volusia abuse council CEO Buck James confirmed in a message.
A more complete database
The resolution on Tuesday’s agenda was modeled after a Tennessee measure called Savanna’s Law, which created a statewide database for people convicted of domestic violence more than once.
But Reinhart said he was inclined to lower that threshold, and he said during the meeting that county residents broadly agreed.
“When I went to those commission meetings,” he said, “almost every city commission that I went to … almost every single one of them said, ‘What's wrong with one conviction? They were tried. Due process was done. They were tried and found guilty by their peers.’”
The Volusia council amended the resolution to include one-time convictions in the database, too.
The council also agreed to retroactively include anyone convicted of abuse in the past 10 years.
The final vote was 6-1. District 1 Commissioner Don Dempsey dissented, arguing that the database would clog the legal system as suspects reject plea deals and go to trial in hopes of avoiding conviction.
But criminal records already are public, Reinhart challenged.
“Their criminal history is going to hurt them, and they have that already. … So why is it that they're [being] on a database is any more severe than already having the charge in the criminal history?”
