Sheriff's Office proposes locked 'safe house' beside Special Victims Unit to centralize domestic-violence services

Lauren Davis of the Utah County Sheriff's Office presented a proposal on Feb. 12 to create a locked safe house adjacent to the county Special Victims Unit that would centralize services for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

Davis said victim services served 929 victims in the previous year and that domestic or family violence was the most common case type. She described the proposed center as a single, secured facility offering intake specialists, legal aid for protective orders and civil matters, childcare assistance, therapy referrals, and a volunteer program. “One of the hard things is that victims frequently... say going through the court process is more traumatic than the scribe itself,” Davis said, adding the center would also host criminal-justice support groups to help victims navigate court and recovery.

Davis named local partners the refuge (a Utah County nonprofit that specializes in sexual and domestic violence), the Children's Justice Center (CJC), and other county programs as collaborators. She said her supervisor, Christiana Wagstaff, is writing a grant with logistics support from Ben Benoit; the timeline in the presentation calls for a March grant submission, a June decision and a potential July start if funded.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions about coverage areas and services; Davis said the office proactively reviews police reports and reaches out to victims across the county, with a high caseload in Eagle Mountain, Vineyard, Santaquin and Salem. She described the safe house as a locked facility serving only victims with intake screening and multi-agency referrals, modeled in part on the Children's Justice Center but focused on adult domestic-violence survivors.

The proposal is at the grant-application stage; commissioners and staff did not take formal action during the meeting.