RD419 - Evaluation of the Address Confidentiality Program - December 2010


Executive Summary:
During the 2007 Session of the General Assembly, Senator Patricia Smith Ticer introduced legislation (SB 938) which established an address confidentiality program for victims of domestic violence. A one-year pilot program was created and codified in Virginia Code §§ 2.2-515.1 and 2.2-515.2. The one-year pilot program was subsequently implemented in Arlington County and an evaluation of the one-year pilot was completed and submitted to the General Assembly in December 2007.

In order to obtain additional information about the effectiveness of the address confidentiality program and its use by victims of domestic violence, the pilot program was expanded. During the 2008 Session of the General Assembly, additional legislation was introduced by Senator Ticer (SB 764) expanding the pilot program in Virginia Code § 2.2-515.2 to 17 additional localities: the Counties of Albemarle, Augusta, Dickenson, Fairfax, Henry, Lee, Rockbridge, Russell, Scott, Washington, and Wise as well as the Cities of Buena Vista, Charlottesville, Lexington, Martinsville, Norfolk, and Roanoke. (*1) The expanded pilot program became effective July 1, 2008.

The enactment clause of the 2008 legislation specifically provides that "[a]n evaluation of the program shall be prepared by the Office of the Attorney General and the results forwarded to the members of the Senate Committee on General Laws and the House Committee on General Laws by December 31, 2010." The law further provides that:

[F]ollowing the evaluation of the program by the Office of the Attorney General in accordance with the second enactment of this act, the continuation of the address confidentiality program on a statewide basis shall be conditioned upon an appropriation effectuating the purposes of this act in the appropriation act passed during the 2011 Session of the General Assembly and signed into law by the Governor.

2008 Va. Acts ch. 649. Pursuant to this mandate, the Office of the Attorney General provides the following evaluation.
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(*1) The majority of the expansion localities (the Counties of Albemarle, Dickenson, Fairfax, Henry, Lee, Russell, Scott, Washington and Wise, and the Cities of Charlottesville, Martinsville, Norfolk and Roanoke) were selected due to their participation at the time with a statewide domestic violence grant, the Grants to Encourage Arrest Policies and Enforcement of Protection Orders. The remaining three localities (Augusta County, Buena Vista, and Lexington) were included at the request of a fellow legislator. A copy of the applicable code section is provided in Appendix A.