November 2, 2015- UPDATE: Operation Safe Surrender  The Harrisburg Police Department conducted a domestic violence enforcement warrant detail on Saturday, October 31, 2015 in the City of Harrisburg.  The warrant detail was phase two the Operation Safe Surrender program.  Safe Surrender is a joint effort between the District Attorney's Office and the Harrisburg Bureau of Police to serve outstanding domestic violence warrants and get the cases heard in court.  During phase one of the program on October 28, 2015, suspects were encouraged to turn themselves in and in return for their voluntarily surrendering, authorities promised that the offender would receive unsecured bail and a new court date.  During phase two of the program, police officers actively attempted to serve the pending warrants of those individuals that did not take advantage of the Safe Surrender grace period.  

On October 28, 2015, ten individuals took advantage of the Safe Surrender program and turned themselves into the police.  This past weekend, during phase two of the program, Harrisburg police officers arrested an additional 4 suspects.  The domestic violence warrant enforcement effort will continue over the next few weeks as officers seek to make additional arrests on the remaining outstanding domestic violence warrants.     

Domestic violence is a crime that is often overlooked and misunderstood as compared to other crimes the public hear about.  Most times domestic violence incidents only make the news when a victim has been killed.  Those headline grabbing incidents are only the tip of the iceberg compared to the total number of domestic violence crimes reported each year. 

According to statistics cited by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) on their website:

• 1 in every 4 women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime.
• 1 in 33 men have experienced an attempted or completed rape.
• An estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year.