A new partnership between Hennepin County and Minneapolis aims to speed progress on assisting survivors of one of the most serious classes of domestic violence cases. But some advocates say there’s work left undone and are questioning why a longtime community partner has been cut out of it.

The cases are called “Gone On Arrival,” and they’re what they sound like: someone calls law enforcement to report domestic violence, but the suspect is already gone by the time help arrives.

That’s a concern in any crime, of course. But with domestic violence, GOA cases have represented a major shortcoming in the Minneapolis Police Department’s response, according to a 2023 analysis of MPD conducted by Global Rights for Women, in partnership with the city.

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“Individuals that use violence know that because of … a lack of resources, because of all of the things that are being navigated in Minneapolis, that if they leave, it’s very unlikely that they’ll be pursued,” said Amirthini Keefe, executive director of the Minneapolis-based Domestic Abuse Project in an interview with MinnPost.

New job will assist survivors of felony-level domestic violence offense

It’s in the wake of that report – and the deaths of Allison Lussier and Mariah Samuels – that Hennepin County commissioners voted on June 11 to approve a $250,000 joint powers agreement with Minneapolis. Through the agreement, the city will fund a new position in the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office for the next three years, starting on July 1.

The position, which will be located in the office’s Domestic Abuse Service Center, will help the county follow up and provide victim advocacy services to felony-level reports of GOA domestic violence cases in the city. Currently, that work is supposed to be routed through the Minneapolis Police Department’s domestic assault unit to Cornerstone, a local nonprofit that supports survivors of domestic violence.

Non-felony GOA cases already have a pathway through the DASC, which assists survivors with things like creating a safety plan, tracking and informing them of their case’s status and helping them identify housing, legal help and other resources.

“Why was … why would … why was there ever a distinction” between felony and non-felony level cases, asked a clearly baffled Commissioner Heather Edelson on June 2. “Are all cities like that?”

Not quite, DASC Director Siri Lokensgard told MinnPost. The city has long been in charge of following the felony cases, but at some point after DASC’s creation in 1994 – Lokensgard isn’t quite sure when – it was decided that DASC should begin following up on misdemeanor cases, since it hadn’t been happening at all.

Taking over the felony cases makes sense, Lokensgard said, given that DASC is something of a “one-stop shop” for domestic violence survivors, and many of the cases land in the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.

Hennepin County Commissioner Irene Fernando (District 2) agreed, telling Edelson during the meeting that “it seemed so misaligned” to have the current split of the city and county following up on different classes of cases.

“This streamlining will quite literally, in my opinion, decrease deaths,” said Fernando, who blasted Mayor Jacob Frey and the city for what she called a “persistent failure” to address domestic violence in an October statement about Lussier and Samuels’ deaths.

But Artika Roller, the executive director of Cornerstone, said her organization, which has contracted with the city to provide services in felony cases for the better part of a decade, was blindsided by the switch.

The notification of DASC’s expansion came near the end of May, Roller said. An official notice that the city’s contract with Cornerstone would end was provided about a week ago.

Roller said she has no problems with expanding services, but said community-based advocates offer some clear advantages, like being able to offer greater confidentiality to clients. Ideally, she said, Cornerstone could’ve continued its work alongside DASC’s additional resources.

“It’s not the way that you work with community providers,” she said of the decision.

Ongoing funding remains a challenge

“The earlier that a victim of domestic abuse is connected with those services, the better,” said Connie Moore, executive director of Alexandra House, a Blaine-based domestic abuse treatment center and shelter that serves the Twin Cities metro area.

Moore fears that even with the county’s new victim advocate for felony cases, making connections with survivors could become more challenging, given recent reductions in federal funding that the state receives through the Victims of Crime Act.

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On May 16, the state legislature passed a funding package that included $12 million to offset the 20% cut to VOCA funding, which Moore said had already seen a downturn in recent years.

For Alexandra House, that would have meant a loss of $361,000. And a one-time deal to cover a financial gap doesn’t mean she’s done worrying about the future of that funding.

“These funds don’t just fund our shelter,” Moore said, citing additional services like legal assistance and a supportive housing program – another safety net that has recently faced federal cuts.

And some advocates say that even as the city and county work to improve outcomes for survivors, there’s more work to be done. Melissa Scaia, the domestic violence response teams coordinator at Domestic Abuse Project, said she’s long advocated for – but has yet to see – more systemic changes like extensive training to identify the extent of the risk posed to individuals, including the risk of death.

“We’re always going to support having additional resources to meet with individual victims,” Scaia said. “But what we know is that if you don’t also invest in changes in systemic responses, it’s just like another person to help, another person on the hamster wheel of it all.”

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