Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.
Each week we come together right here we talk about
all the topics important to you and the place where
you live. Happy Thanksgiving weekend to you, by the way,
it is so good to be with you this weekend.
Thankful for you every weekend. I'm Nicole Davis.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
These days, pretty much everybody has a cell phone, and honestly,
it's kind of hard to imagine life without it. Same
at this point with social media like Facebook and other
digital platforms like that for victims of domestic violence, though,
those phones and digital connections are not just ways to
stay in touch, but they're often critical lifelines. Those platforms
and devices are being compromised and manipulated by abusers to
(00:47):
force victims to stay in dangerous and frankly deadly at
times relationships. There's a new first in the nation program
that's rolled out in Rhode Island, and what they're doing
is getting the word out about digital safety for survivors
and providing what could be life saving resources. Let's talk
about it here at and t's Atlantic State President, John
Emra is here. Gina Scordino is the executive vice president
(01:09):
of the Elizabeth Buffam Chase Center, she's here too, and
we also welcome sid Wardell. He is the executive director
of the Rhode Island Police Chiefs Association. So thank you
all so much for your time. Gina, I definitely want
to start with you because I'd love to know more
about the work you do at the center, the Elizabeth
Buffam Chase Center. What are you doing there to help
domestic violence victims when.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
It pertains to devices and electronics first of all, domestic
violence and sexual assault it is at epidemic proportions around
the world, and what I most know about is Rhode Island.
(01:50):
As I think since twenty twenty two, we have had
close to twenty seven besides oh wow, so you know
we at this agency alone, oh, I think in the
past year we have served close to four thousand individuals
(02:16):
and that is everything from restraining orders, criminal cases where
someone is arrested for a domestic assault, all of that
we've served it close to oh god, four to six
hundred people, survivors for counseling, shelter services. So it's you know,
(02:44):
I always say that the society in general doesn't really
understand a lot of times with the words domestic violence
means you know what's behind those words mean. What I
can tell you is when you think of some of
the stuff you've seen in the news, where you've seen
actual videos of incidents of domestic violence, I want you
(03:08):
to know that that's domestic violence. That's what it looks
looks like. I mean, I've seen reports over the years,
many many reports that are read way worse than some
of the videos that have been in elevators. You know,
there was the football player, there's the most recent video
(03:32):
with p Ditty right right, And you know when people
see those videos, they go, oh my god, and they're
so shocked. I've had friends call me up and say,
you know, that's horrific, and I say, you know, I've
been I've been reading police reports and having survivors tell
me those stories for many years and worse, far worse
(03:54):
than what you've seen on that video. That's what domestic
violence looks like.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yeah, and said to the police side of things, I
would love to know your input on this, and how
have you as police chiefs around Rhode Island. Have you noticed,
especially since COVID, that there's been kind of an uptick?
What are you seeing on your end?
Speaker 4 (04:13):
Yeah, definitely. Like Gena said, unfortunately, measure everything now in
a time capsule, which starts with COVID. But we've certainly
seen the numbers increase dramatically around domestic violence and the
severity of the violence getting worse as well. And what
(04:37):
we've partnered here with AT and T and Elizabeth Putnam
Chase centers around the technology side, right It's something that's
although we may think it's fairly new, it's beings being
used in newer ways, I guess every day. But the
idea that somebody can track somebody just by having some
(04:59):
type of an app or something on your phone, it's
pretty scary.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah, I mean we all have these devices with us.
We never actually put them down. We have our phones,
we have our Apple watches. I've heard stories about air
tags and things like that being put on people's cars.
I mean, Gina, how do you at the shell at
the center see victims being targeted right now?
Speaker 3 (05:18):
So, and we have been saying it in the past
few years, but even more so through COVID, And at
the end of COVID is the everything from apps to
using them for using phones for tracking devices. I can't
tell you there's a week that goes by that we
(05:39):
don't have a survivor come in meet with one of
our counselors or myself and tell me something that's going
on with the phone. And you know, and I talked
about it last week, I mean the beginning of the week.
The phone is an necessity for us now, yes, and
(05:59):
it is a necessity for survivors to be able to
you know, communicate and get you know, be safe. And
perpetrators are using it as a weapon. And so just
one of our advocates, one of our counselors was telling
me this morning, is for an for instance, she has
(06:22):
a survivor that has been out for a few years.
She moved to a whole nother state and recently the
abuser has been able to track her in another state
through her ober app. Oh wow, And so he knew
that she was using ober back you know, a couple
(06:43):
of years ago, and somehow, you know, was able to
use that app to see where she was getting rides.
Now you just wouldn't think of that. So this program,
this pilot program, is all about educating survives in helping
them to take power over their devices and really kind
(07:06):
of to try to help them turn their essential device
and these devices into safety devices so that they're using
them in a way that they're not able to be
weaponized against them. Yeah, and it is education around these apps.
I've had a client just as of a few weeks
(07:28):
ago I started seeing and her partner, her abusive partner,
is very skilled in technology and was able to go
into her phone and delete important information that would be
(07:51):
used in a criminal case against them.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Domestic violence victims are often impacted financially through fiscal abuse,
access to bank account, things like that. How are you
seeing that?
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Well, I mean think about it. So if you look
at if you're thinking about devices, everybody does almost everything
on their phones and computers. So you know, if you're
looking at whether it be hacking into emails and all
of that, and that they have been able to hack
into email, change passwords for emails, forward emails out into
(08:24):
their say this person works at as a professional on
different levels and hack into their work emails. And then
there's the shutting off of the devices or you know,
people are connecting all of their home cameras, so say
you have a home camera, you know on a device
(08:47):
the particular person that has been deleted the information also
hooked everything into Google cameras and is also able to
monitor every thing on camera and use those cameras to
reach out to the victim by standing in front of
the camera. They have children. There's some it's hard to explain,
(09:12):
but there's some apps that are used for mediation in
child in children, family caught interaction and just it all
being trended against them. But I mean, financially, think about
how most times these survivors may not have the ability
(09:33):
to just turn and get another phone or another another
phone program or you know, and sometimes because which we
don't realize is that abusers take the time to figure
outt passwords. And I said it you know this week,
(09:55):
and I'll say it again. Know that most times survivors
have given up all of their information and passwords to
this who at one point was a loving partner and
a trustworthy is what they thought partner. Victim survivors do
not show up in these relationships and sign on to
(10:19):
have you know, their information you used against them by
the person they're supposed to trust most in the world.
Right of course, so you know, we have to take
that into consideration because you know, you would think, maybe, well,
why do you give this person your password or whatever. Well,
that person was your husband, right, that person was your partner,
(10:41):
that person was your children's father or mother or whatever,
and of course you gave it because you were supposed
to be able to trust them.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah, well, John, I want to bring you in here
and let's talk about the tech safety program itself. Tell
me about what this covers and how AT and T
is involved.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
Yeah, I'm happy to Why don't I start a little
bit with a bit of an origin story because I
think it's it's interesting. So this started about four years ago.
We had a customer reach out to someone on my team.
They had a technology question and a and a request
and for help, and and and Donald is a member
on my team, and Ed ended up talking to this
(11:21):
customer and that that conversation turned a little bit. She
the customer decided to sort of share her personal story
of issues she had had as a domestic violence victim
and the problem she had had with her cell phone
with her abuser, you know, sort of knowing to Genu's point,
knowing all of her passwords, knowing all this information and
(11:42):
really sort of continuing the abuse, you know, after they
were still physically separated from one another. So to Ed's credit,
he started doing some digging and this is like a
four year odyssey on his part of reaching out to
advocates like EBC and and and like Organs stations in Massachusetts,
to folks inside AT and T, and it eventually gave
(12:04):
birth to this program that we announced earlier in this
earlier this week, which is all about how do we
educate domestic violence victims, advocates, law enforcement who you know
AT and T partners with on an ongoing basis all
the time these days, you know, how do we educate
these kind of three important groups about ways to keep
(12:25):
people safe? Right? I mean you've touched a few on
a few things. G know, like there's you know, it's
it's everywhere, from the software that's on your phone to
air tags that are planted somewhere on your vehicle or
in a piece of clothing. There's all sorts of you know,
technological pratfall or pitfalls that are out there. And as
as good as the technology is and as and and
(12:46):
as good as it can sort of change our lives
in a meaningful way, it can also be you know,
if if someone has a malicious intent, they can do
some pretty bad things with it. So the intent of
this program is to figure out how do we educate
people to keep themselves safe and how do we you know,
empower them give them the tools they need to protect themselves.
So that was really the intent of the program. We're
(13:07):
really excited to launch it in Rhode Island. This is
going to be I think a multi year process for
us to start to get out into the community, talk
to people, talk to all these important vital groups. We're
going to start in Rhode Island and then we're going
to move on to Massachusetts and we hope it's something
this spreads nationwide.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Yes, Sid, how is this program going to be able
to help you work with not just victims, but also
law enforcement around the state to try and get on
top of this problem.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Well, so, you know, it's a collaboration that we're building
off that we already had with AT and T and
then now bringing in the technology where a, if we
have an investigation involving you know, some type of advice,
we've done that, we work on that, but now we
have options for individuals who aren't in it, you know,
(13:57):
a situation where there's some type of amestic violence or
otherwise to assist them in getting out from under that.
And at the end of the day, it's about the
safety of the individual. Secondary to that is, you know,
being able to prosecute or hold somebody accountable that that
does put somebody in a situation of domestic violence. But
(14:19):
really at the biggest part of it is the safety
that we can provide to give to somebody barely easily
now to get out from under the thumb of the control.
You know, if it meant they were on the same plan,
or the head of the household or the abuser is
(14:40):
the one that holds the plan that they're under. You know.
It really, as we all know when we've gotten out
of any type of plan, not just with the with
cell phones, if you're not the originator of it, in
order to make those changes is really cumbersome. This just
allows a better way now that we can help and
give that option to do it.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
And really it's all about getting justice for those victims
as well, something I know you and law enforcement really
focus on and that's a priority.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
For you absolutely. I mean, at the end of the day,
that's certainly what we want to do. Invold them accountable,
you know, being able to tell someone that you're going
to be able to prosecute through carry that through, which
you know usually then goes in a restraining order and
other things. But you know, short of that, it's still
(15:30):
being able to give somebody a little bit of security
because you have to remember, unfortunately, in a large number
of cases, the actual victim, especially the first time around,
doesn't always want to follow through, so it might be
just the part about getting them out from under the
control of the abuser.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
I would love to know, Gina, if people want to
find out more about the work you're doing, if they
need assistance, how can they get a hold of you.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
They can contact us right at Elizabeth Buffam Chase Center.
Phone number here is seven three eight nine seven zero zero.
They can always ask for me, and all of our
agencies work very collaboratively together. But the goal is very
soon we are going to start launching into trainings around
(16:18):
Rhode Island for entities. Myself, another specialized trainer and Edmund
will be giving these trainings and helping people to understand
the Safe Connections Act and these things that you know.
I asked in the room how many people knew about
the Safe Connections Act when we were working on that
(16:39):
rollout the pilot on Tuesday and almost no one knew.
So that's why we're you know, it's all about education.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
But yeah, we're right here at ABC Elizabeth buffam Chase Center.
It's EBC House dot org. You can look on our
website and there are many advocates a support.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
And Sid, I guess my last question for you if
people want to know how their local law enforcement are
attacking this issue, what would you suggest people do to
get in touch.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
Well, the best part is to make sure that they
actually reach out to their local law enforcement. That's the
best place to start. We will be putting up some
information on our website as well about the pilot program
and working and you know, like they said about EBC,
they do cover a majority of the state in assisting
(17:34):
but if somebody calls them and it's not a normal
area of the state of Hode Island to cover, they'll
put them in contact with the right people. So you know,
never hesitate to give your local law enforcement a call
and ask them for assistance or information or way to
find information.
Speaker 5 (17:50):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Well this has been very eye opening and enlightening. Thank
you so much, Gina and Sid and John. I appreciate
your time here on the show.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Thank you all.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Right, have a safe and healthy and happy holiday weekend.
Please enjoy yourself. Join us again next week for another
edition of the show. I'm Nicole Davis from WBZ News
Radio on iHeartRadio