(SACRAMENTO) – Legislation by Assemblymember Tim Grayson (D-Concord) to fight crimes of domestic violence and human trafficking passed the Senate Public Safety Committee with bipartisan support late Tuesday.
“This bill will give victim support specialists and law enforcement the options to work together to investigate complex cases if it is in the client’s best interest, and also limits the need for victims to seek help in multiple places,” said Assemblymember Grayson. “The Multidisciplinary Team is an established model for assisting individuals and families struggling with interpersonal violence. AB 998 will allow counties to leverage resources and work collaboratively to effectively seek justice for victims of some of the most painful and heinous crimes.”
AB 998 will expand the proven Multidisciplinary Team, or MDT, model of violence treatment and prevention to include situations of human trafficking and domestic violence. The bill allows members of these MDTs to share, only with one another, information and records that may be confidential but are relevant to the prevention, identification, management, or treatment of those crimes when doing so serves the victim’s interest.
“AB 998 allows for these important Multidisciplinary Teams to collaborate, share and develop ways to not only serve vulnerable victims but hold perpetrators accountable for these complex and horrific crimes,” said Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton in support of this bill.
Dana Filkowski, Domestic Violence Supervisor of the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office, added, “This bill is an easy, common-sense solution which allows communities to leverage existing resources of dedicated and trained professionals to collaborate for the benefit of some of our most vulnerable victims. We’ve seen it work first-hand in a pilot project launched by our Family Justice Center.”
AB 998 proceeds to the Senate Judiciary Committee for further consideration.
Tim Grayson represents the 14th Assembly District that includes the communities of Benicia, Concord, Clayton, Martinez, Pleasant Hill, Vallejo, Pittsburg and Walnut Creek. For more information please visit the Assemblymember’s website, www.assembly.ca.gov/a14.