Hamilton County task force outlines plan to institutionalize domestic violence services, commissioners proclaim October 2025

Hamilton County commissioners on Oct. 14 heard presentations from a multi-agency domestic violence task force that described recent changes to how protection orders and survivor services are delivered and outlined a proposed “blueprint” to institutionalize those practices.

The presentations, led by Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey, Judge Anne Flotman of the domestic relations court and Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Pavan Parikh, detailed expanded on-site advocacy, steps courts and law enforcement are taking to preserve evidence in strangulation cases and efforts to reduce the number of people who begin protection-order proceedings but later drop out. The board later read and presented a proclamation recognizing October 2025 as Domestic Violence Awareness Month in Hamilton County.

Why it matters: Task-force members told commissioners the changes aim to reduce barriers that cause survivors to abandon legal protection processes, preserve medical evidence in cases of nonfatal strangulation and create a single, replicable set of practices so future staff and officials can continue coordinated service delivery.

Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey said the biweekly task-force meetings have expanded partnerships across criminal justice, health care and nonprofit advocacy and stressed the risk frontline personnel face when serving protection orders. “It’s a very dangerous realm that we step…