As you may be aware, Peace Over Violence is currently navigating some challenging issues in Los Angeles. The Partnership (Board, staff and Consultants) have been working to understand and make a statement that would reflect our position, wisdom, compassion and commitment to our mission in this very complicated situation. After much dialogue and sharing of diverse perspectives this our statement to the field.

The California Partnership to End Domestic Violence (CPEDV) is aware of the concerns in the field regarding client confidentiality and the protection of client data. The Partnership unequivocally stands for the rights of survivors and the protection of such sensitive information. However, it is true that law enforcement can legally seize your servers with a search warrant. There is nothing your organization or the Partnership can do to stop the execution of a legally authorized search warrant, but there are federal regulations to protect access to survivor’s personally identifying information (VAWA Confidentiality Provision (34 U.S.C. § 12291(b)(2)). Overall, the absolute best practice for protecting survivor information is to maintain federal confidentiality compliance, keep client information separate from grants and operations information and to have the best cyber security your budget can afford.  

CPEDV is dedicated to assuaging the concerns of our members regarding the security of vital, personal information and records we maintain on behalf of the survivors we serve. Concerns about the handling of these records were raised after search warrants were executed in connection with the investigation of matters concerning LA County and Peace Over Violence (POV). To date the Partnership has no concrete evidence that personally identifying information was confiscated or compromised during the execution of the POV search warrant. So, for now we will stay focused on our survivor-centered mission. We remain united in our mission to ensure that our members are in full compliance with laws as prescribed by state and federal authorities and will maintain our due diligence so that we can continue serving all victims of domestic violence throughout our state. We assure survivors and our members that the protection of client data within our member programs remains our collective priority.  

To make sure all of us have the most recent information, the Partnership will host a series of webinars on confidentiality compliance and the latest on data protection this fall. Announcements will be coming soon.   

In Partnership,
CPEDV Board and Executive Director