MALLETTE: Because they're more likely to get killed if they leave, and when they know that there's not going to be a police response, they are a lot less likely to take those steps. Mallette says she's seen women give up on trying to get help from law enforcement and choose instead to stay with their abusers. TEMPLETON: Chris Mallette provides counseling and social services to victims of domestic violence and rape in Josephine County. And we don't have the badge, and we don't have the gun. GILBERTSON: There's absolutely no consequences to committing a crime today given the fact that law enforcement is as weak as it is.ĬHRIS MALLETTE: The whole system has crumbled, and we're the only ones left. In it, he warned victims of domestic violence to, quote, "consider relocating to an area with adequate law enforcement services." But after the budget cuts went into effect, he sent out a press release. He didn't want to comment on this particular case. TEMPLETON: That's Josephine County Sheriff Gil Gilbertson. SHERIFF GIL GILBERTSON: There isn't a day go by that we don't have another victim. Eventually, state police arrested him, and he pleaded guilty to sexual assault and sodomy, among other charges. TEMPLETON: According to police records, a few minutes later, the woman's ex-boyfriend, Michael Bellah, used a piece of metal to pry open her front door. TEMPLETON: And four times in total, she says there isn't anyone who can help. She tells the caller to try to hide in the house. TEMPLETON: The dispatcher stays on the phone with the woman for 10 minutes and 21 seconds. So dispatch transferred the call to the Oregon State Police, but they also didn't have anyone available. None of the sheriff's deputies in Josephine County were on duty. TEMPLETON: The call came in on a Saturday at 4:58 in the morning. She told dispatch her ex had hurt her before. We're not using the woman's name because it's NPR's policy not to name the victims of sexual assault. Her ex was wanted by the state police for parole violations. TEMPLETON: The threat she was reporting was real. Calls like this one, made just last August. As a result, deputies no longer respond to emergency calls in the evenings or on the weekends. The sheriff's department lost more than half of its funding.
And Amelia Templeton, of Oregon Public Broadcasting has the story of one county now struggling to survive without them.ĪMELIA TEMPLETON, BYLINE: Josephine County, in the southwest corner of Oregon, was probably the hardest hit.
The bill authorizing those payments has expired. That's money from the federal government paid to counties with large national forests - in other words, land that can't be taxed. Many counties in the state have cut public safety budgets due to the loss of vital timber payments. Well, that's the reality for tens of thousands of people in rural Oregon. Imagine dialing 911 and the voice on the other hand says: Sorry. You're listing to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News.
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