Lawmakers say police questionnaire could predict domestic homicides

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — A bipartisan crew of New York state lawmakers rallied on Tuesday to require police responding to domestic violence calls to use a specific questionnaire. Their proposal would make officers ask victims questions about weapons, threats, and strangulation to predict future homicides.

S2280B/A4899B would change the state’s executive law and general business law so that police complete a “lethality assessment,” a specific kind of incident report that documents whether the abuser behaves jealously, controls their daily activities, or has a gun. Should the answers show a high risk of danger, police have to connect the victim directly with a local domestic violence program, give them the number for the state’s domestic violence hotline, and can even file for extreme risk protection orders to hold abusers accountable.

In the video above, Cornell University junior Sunni Horton shared the results of her research, presenting data to support the bill. She calculated that almost 100,000 New Yorkers faced domestic violence in 2024, and 107 died. According to Horton, as many as half of all domestic homicide victims had police contacted in the year leading up to their deaths.

“That means that one third to over half of all these deaths were potentially preventable,” Horton said, pointing out that Dutchess County’s domestic homicides dropped by 59% after adopting a similar program in 2014. In fact—according to Republican State Senator Rob Rolison, a former police officer of 26 years who cosponsored the bill—Dutchess County law enforcement recently identified 15 high-risk individuals in one weekend by using a lethality assessment.

Advocates argued that the questionnaire saves lives. In the video below, Democratic State Senator Lea Webb read a letter from Joe Petito—father of murdered domestic violence victim Gabby Petito—whose family supports the legislation. “We strongly believe its utilization could have potentially saved our daughter had it been used during her encounter in Moab, Utah,” Webb read.

The State Senate passed the current version on February 24, and has also passed the bill in previous years. At the press conference, Webb and Rolison pressured their Assembly colleagues—including the bill sponsor, Democratic Assemblymember Sarah Clark—to finally get the bill passed.