Harassment restraining order delivery changes proposed

One of the biggest problems law enforcement personnel face with harassment restraining orders is when one can be delivered.

According to St. Paul Police Sergeant Dave McCabe, they can only be served by the county sheriff “during the day, during the week, excluding holidays.” Orders for protection can be served any time.

An unserved harassment restraining order cannot be seen by law enforcement in a routine database check during a call for service. Once served, the order becomes visible. An unserved protection order can be seen via routine checks.

Sponsored by Rep. Marion O'Neill (R-Maple Lake), HF1148 would, in part, allow corrections officers — including probation, parole and court services officers and jail or correctional facility employees — to serve a harassment restraining order at any time. It would also create a short-term notification that could notify a respondent about the existence of a restraining order.

Additionally, the bill would permit the creation of a data network system.

“We don’t have a database built, but it would allow a court to build a database or combine it with the OFP system,” O’Neill said. “I know that was the plan a decade ago, and it never seemed to come to fruition. I believe it is time for the safety of the victims.”

WATCH Committee discussion of the bill 

The bill, as amended, was held over Thursday by the House Public Safety and Security Policy and Finance Committee for possible omnibus bill inclusion. Its companion, SF1229, sponsored by Sen. Warren Limmer (R-Maple Grove), awaits action by the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee.

Bree Adams Bill is program director at The St. Paul and Ramsey County Domestic Abuse Intervention Project. She said domestic abuse victims sometimes prefer a harassment restraining order versus an OFP.

A victim requesting an OFP must specify the violence that has taken place, and they don’t always want to do that, she said. “There’s not only an obvious humiliation and embarrassment of that, but also they fear retaliation by the abuser. … An abuser gets a copy of that, they see it and it’s now become you’re airing their dirty laundry.”

Adams Bill said the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in 2008 if there is a recognition of parentage in an OFP, an abusive father can ask for parenting time at an OFP hearing. Having custody tied to an order for protection, she said, has “blatantly impacted women’s abilities” to file an OFP and decide who has access to the children.

“A likely option in both of those scenarios is filing a harassment restraining order,” she said. “In a harassment restraining order you do not need to detail out the physical of sexual violence that’s in the relationship, but what a victim can talk about is the harassment that’s always there.” Additionally, she noted, a harassment restraining order does not address parenting time, it only restrains an alleged abuser from having contact.

“We want harassment restraining orders to match the order for protection in service, so that enforcement of that order can be done 24/7 and also violations can occur just as they can when an order for protection is filed.”