‘Being There For The Victim’

State Grant Brings New Officer To BVPD

The newest member of the Buena Vista Police Department is driven by a desire to help victims.

Officer Jennifer Smith brings more than 12 years of experience with the Norfolk Police Department with her to Buena Vista, including six and a half years in the Special Crimes Unit, which was responsible for investigating cases involving domestic assault, sexual assault and crimes against children. Smith told The News-Gazette that she sought out the Special Crimes Unit because she wanted to work with the victims of those kinds of crimes.

Her primary role with the Buena Vista Police Department will be working with victims of those kinds of crimes, connecting them with local resources such as the Victim/Witness Assistance Program or Project Horizon. She will also follow up with the victims and be available for them for additional support.

“Even something as small as going to court and being there for the victim tends to help, tends to make it a little easier for them,” she said. “So it’s really about being proactive, letting them know that they do have resources, that they do have a way out if that’s what they want. That’s what I’m trying to convey here.”

Smith’s position is funded by a grant from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice’s Virginia Services, Training, Officers [and] Prosecution (VSTOP) program. The program originated from federal legislation passed in 1994 as part of the Violence Against Women Act.

The Buena Vista Police Department applied for the grant in August of last year and in November, received word that it had been awarded a $100,000 grant to be administered over two years, beginning in January of 2024.

BVPD Chief Wayne Handley, who also worked in the Norfolk Police Department before coming to Buena Vista, said that one of the driving factors behind the program the grant is being used to fund is the fact that, while Buena Vista doesn’t have a high level of violent crimes, domestic assault is consistently among the top charges among arrests in the city. Between 2020 and 2023, 72 domestic assault arrests were made in the city, accounting for 4 percent of total arrests in that time period. Only drug possession (104) and alcohol-related charges (101) had more arrests in that time frame.

“I did a lot of work in violent crime investigation in Norfolk,” he said. “Very often, we would see significant violent crime, that was interpersonal violence, whether it was aggravated assault, a stabbing, a shooting or, Heaven forbid, a homicide, that when, traced back, you found histories of domestic assault where an arrest was made, reports were done, and then that was the extent of the law enforcement involvement.

“If there had been an intervention beyond the law enforcement involvement, there’s a probability – it doesn’t always guarantee it, but there’s a probability – that we might have been able to prevent some of these more serious crimes,” he said.

Since they both worked in Norfolk, Handley knew Smith had “extensive experience” with the kind of work that the program would require.

“These situations are emotion-filled [and] they’re usually very tense, and … while all officers can practice empathic law-enforcement skill sets, not everybody is as good at it as others,” he said. “Jennifer brings a very well-rounded set of skills that are inherent. She cares about what’s happening, she has this empathy that she can relate to victims on multiple levels and she has the ability to talk with them at a time that is absolutely critical in their lives. Jennifer has that ability to help calm people down and be able to refocus on things that need to be done and the know-how and skill set to help them navigate through the magistrate “Do we have officers here that can do that? Of course we do,” he continued, “[but] she’s already been doing this for the past 13 years, so she has practical experience at a very high volume. We don’t have the volume here in Buena Vista that we have in other urban areas where they have much higher crime rates, and so the fact that she can bring that experience and can hit the ground running right away is a benefit for the citizens here, because she already knows what to do.”

When Handley, who served as the chief of staff in the Norfolk Sheriff’s Office before coming to Buena Vista, reached out to Smith about the program he wanted to start in Buena Vista, she had been working with the Norfolk Police Department’s Criminal Intelligence Unit for over two years, having transferred from the Special Crimes Unit, though she was still very much interested in working with victims.

“At the end of the day, I feel like it’s my bread and butter, if you will, for lack of a better phrase,” she said. “I love working those types of cases. That might sound bad, but I do because I like providing victims with as many resources and support and whatever I can help them with [so that] they feel safe at the end of the day.”

Due to the high caseload she had in Norfolk, Smith didn’t always get to do the follow-up with the victims herself, something she is able to do more here while still connecting them with the resources to help them.

She told The News-Gazette that she’s already made some connections with some of the victims she’s worked with.

“I know it sounds cliché, but I really do enjoy helping people, especially victims of domestic and sexual assault and child abuse,” she said. “There’s just so many cases of it, and it is extremely under-reported because a lot of times people are too embarrassed to come forward or they’re too frightened to come forward, or they don’t feel like they’re going to have anyone to help them through the process. They think they’re going to have to navigate these things on their own. … It makes me feel like I’m doing my job right if they are wanting to speak with me specifically and wanting to work with me specifically.”

The VSTOP grant will cover the program for two years, after which the department will need to reapply for additional funding, providing reports on the program’s progress. Handley said that, in the months that Smith has been with the department, the program has been working as intended.

“I’m very satisfied with the progress we’re making already. She is taking the initiative on her own caseloads, she’s following up, she’s doing all of the things we’re expecting her to do, while we’re also the developing the policies and processes [for this program], because we’ve never had them before,” he said.