Allegany County committee approves application to be pilot site for coordinated domestic‑violence response

The Allegany County Public Safety Committee voted Dec. 10 to authorize an application to the Office of Prevention for Domestic Violence to become a pilot county for a coordinated community response to domestic violence.

County Administrator (unnamed in the transcript) told the committee the pilot designation would help the county develop a coordinated response plan and provide technical support; the administrator said they did not believe a dollar match was required but that staff time would be necessary to prepare the application and develop the program. “I don't believe there's any dollar amounts that the county needs to match or commit to this, but there would be staff time on coming up with the plan,” the administrator said.

During discussion multiple speakers described local need and potential partners. One participant said probation has three dedicated officers who previously worked in domestic‑violence programs and that many pretrial releases handled by the county involve domestic‑violence cases: “And half of our... pretrial cases that we are getting released from CAPCOR are domestic violence cases,” an on‑record speaker said. Committee members and presenters discussed aligning this pilot with the county’s high‑risk team (Accord), the district attorney’s office, DSS, probation, the sheriff’s office and community action partners.

Speakers did not settle on a single lead agency; one member cautioned, “I don't wanna say that the Sheriff's Office is going to be the Lead.” The committee approved the motion by voice vote. The transcript does not record numerical tallies or a formal assignment of a lead agency; staff were instructed to proceed with the application process.

Next steps: submit the application, develop an interagency plan, and return to the committee with details on roles, timelines and staff commitments.