Senate Approves Bill to Protect Privacy of Domestic Violence Survivors

(SALEM, Ore.) - Today the Senate voted to protect the privacy of Oregon’s domestic violence survivors by passing Senate Bill 347, which shields publicly-administered domestic violence centers from public records law. In doing this, the bill will protect survivors by removing an abuser’s ability to use the public records system to track victims.

“Our first priority when it comes to domestic violence issues has to be ensuring the safety of Oregon’s domestic violence survivors, and this bill does just that,” said Senate Majority Leader Diane Rosenbaum (D-Portland), who carried the bill on the Senate floor.

“Women living in fear of their abuser should know if they visit a shelter, they aren’t putting themselves and their families at greater risk because an abuser demands public records about their stay.”

The need for SB 347 became apparent after the opening of Portland’s Gateway Center for Domestic Violence Services in September 2010. The Gateway Center is a publicly-administered one-stop shop where victims of domestic violence, and their children, can receive a variety of services to ensure their safety and address their long-term needs.

But as a public agency maintained by the city of Portland, any records maintained pertaining to victims seeking services as the Gateway Center are subject to public records requests.

Therefore, the Center currently does not track visitors day-to-day in fear that an abuser will seek to discover those records and use them against a victim, thus placing the victim’s life in greater danger. By allowing the Center to keep records of its visitors, they can keep better track of their clients and patterns of abuse.

“The Gateway Center is the first of its kind here in Oregon and I hope it can become a model for sheltering our state’s domestic violence survivors,” said Senator Laurie Monnes Anderson (D-Gresham).

“By passing laws like SB 347 and supporting shelters like The Gateway Center, we can protect victims and makes it harder for abusers to continue the cycle of abuse.”

Salem-News.com Top Stories

2025: Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst

Two Wars with No Way Out

No One Owns the Future

The Ugly Origins of Trump's America First Policy

A One-State Solution Could Transform the World

Comments Leave a comment on this story.

All comments and messages are approved by people and self promotional links or unacceptable comments are denied.

April 4, 2011 8:26 pm (Pacific time)

I had a friend who called the police (Salem) about a decade ago because his wife was beating him. Debra Baker (retiring Deputy Chief) showed up and put HIM in cuffs and literally stood ON him with a foot for over 30 minutes, calling him names and threatening to beat him if he said anything at all. I thought the police were supposed to actually be neutral parties and actually investigate. Baker ended up saying that if he wanted to file charges, then SHE would arrest HIM for interfering with her investigation...

Ray April 4, 2011 5:41 pm (Pacific time)

Domestic violence will never end as long as the whole truth about it is misrepresented to comply with feminist ideology. V.P. Biden recently called violence against women, "the very worst abuse." The very worst abuse is valuing one life less than another for having been born the wrong gender. Under domestic violence law, the wrong gender is men. Shelter and services are virtually non-existent for male victims of domestic violence. Options out of a bad relationship, that women have, are often not available to men. Men wind up gender profiled by the taxpayer funded, domestic violence industry, because of gender feminist ideology controlling the d.v. industry. Men are often battered by domestic violence, and then battered again by the taxpayer funded, domestic violence industry as shown in "Los Misandry" at Youtube.

Ray April 4, 2011 5:39 pm (Pacific time)

What about little children? Deaths of little children, killed by their mothers, is egregious. Yet the taxpayer funded, domestic violence industry disingenuously tries to make us believe that women are the main victims. According to the U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services and DOJ statistics, more kids are killed by neglect and abuse in a year (1,760 in 2007), than all the female intimate partner homicides in a year. Mothers are the single largest group of kid killers, according to HHS, and they have a rate twice that of fathers. Nowhere near the money is spent to protect kids from kid killing mothers as is spent by the domestic violence industry to protect women. The taxpayer funded d.v. industry is a bastion of misandrist vilification, falsely accusing men of being the overwhelming cause of d.v., and empowering violent women to commit further domestic violence. The corruption of the taxpayer funded, domestic violence industry is characterized in "Los Misandry" at Youtube.

Ray April 4, 2011 5:38 pm (Pacific time)

Women's domestic violence against men is grossly under reported, while male victims are still routinely being ignored by the taxpayer funded domestic violence industry. Credible research overwhelmingly shows that the ratio of domestic violence is at least 50/50 between women and men. Go to Fiebert Bibliography. According to one study by researchers who work at the CDC, in 70 percent of domestic violence incidents, where the d.v. is not mutual, it's women who initiate the d. v. Go to Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting. Click on the link under the red and blue pie chart. D.v. law follows a gender feminist agenda over facts and does great harm to many innocent men and also many violent women. Go to Youtube, “Los Misandry."

[Return to Top]