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State plans to establish protective order registry

From The Associated Press

 

EVANSVILLE — Indiana plans to use a federal grant to establish a protective order registry, which will link courts to police data to try to ensure information in the orders is entered and available immediately all over the state.  Gov. Mitch Daniels and Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall T. Shephard announced the state has received a $259,000 federal grant to create and fund the plan.

Protective orders sometimes would not be available to law enforcement officials for days, which is “unacceptable and too dangerous to continue,” Shephard said in a news release.

Once the registry is running, copies of new orders that go into the system will be faxed to local law enforcement agencies, ensuring all are immediately aware that a protective or no-contact order has been issued or revoked.

The orders also will be registered with the FBI’s National Crime Information Center, offering protection across state lines.

Candice Perry, the legal advocacy program coordinator for Albion Fellows Bacon Center in Evansville, said that the new registry can only help.

“I think the majority of people we come in contact with are unsure with how the protective order will really help them,” Perry said. “We try to educate them on what it does and what it doesn’t do.”

Clients often say they have been told the protective order is “just a piece of paper.”

“We are very realistic with them that it is a piece of paper,” said Perry. “But it’s also a first step that gives law enforcement the ability to do much more for them.”

Perry said the new registry could ease concerns some clients have when traveling between counties.