Those seeking to protect themselves from partners prone to domestic violence will have a new tool to turn to – at least, in Tennessee.
The Volunteer State recently launched a database – the first of its kind in the United States – that will list all individuals convicted of domestic violence crimes more than once in a criminal court of law. Civil cases will not count toward inclusion on the registry, which will be maintained by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
The publicly available and searchable registry will include a person’s name, date of birth, the date and location of their convictions, and a brief description about them.
An initiative started earlier this year, the database is a result of Savanna’s Law, legislation that was enacted last year. The law was named for 22-year-old Savanna Puckett, a former sheriff’s deputy who was murdered (as was her dog) by James Jackson Conn, an ex-boyfriend with a history of domestic violence.
“I was just horrified when I finally saw all those records [about Conn] because I know Savanna well enough that she would have never dated him,” Kim Dodson, Puckett’s mother, said to WSMV4. “I honestly, honestly, honestly feel that if she had known, that she could still be here.”
Research shows that domestic violence is a particularly significant problem in Tennessee – but experts also note that such crimes are also chronically underreported, with nearly half of such cases never being disclosed.
Proponents of the registry acknowledge this. “No one thing is going to work perfectly – everything has holes,” Michelle Clayton of the Knoxville Family Justice Center told NBC affiliate News 10. “I see this as something that is just a very small piece in a very large puzzle.”
Michelle Mowrey Johnson, vice president at the Nashville YWCA, noted to WSMV4 that the registry’s focus is on repeat offenders. “It often takes somebody multiple times to report that abuser. [A person on the registry] is somebody who has to have had … at least two convictions.”
Proponents of the database agree that it will, as Johnson put it, “be very helpful in identifying the most violent offenders, and those that can cause the most harm.” Added Clayton: “The goal is for people to feel empowered, for people to go to a reliable source with trusted information – and be able to protect themselves.”
