Police agencies statewide will adopt a revised Domestic Incident Report this month to more thoroughly collect information, enhance investigations and assist prosecutions.

The revisions, announced this week by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, include providing more space for narrative details, victim interview information and statements from witnesses and/or suspects.

The redesign also allows officers to more accurately document risk factors, a victim’s emotional state and any prior history of domestic violence – all of which are crucial to assessing the physical danger a victim is facing.

“We must do all we can to protect domestic violence victims, ensure they have access to the resources that they need and help law enforcement bring abusers to justice,” Cuomo said. “The wide range of information collected by this redesigned report will play a vital role in holding these offenders accountable and providing victims with the support they need to break this cycle of violence.”

Local police agencies, while acknowledging the importance of these reports, indicated that the revisions will likely have little to no impact on their current reporting process or the success rate of prosecutions.

Joe Gerace, Chautauqua County sheriff, said information that may be lacking in the current version of the Domestic Incident Report is included in a standard police report; both of which, he said, are submitted to the district attorney’s office for prosecutions.

“If the (Domestic Incident Report) is going to be more inclusive, all we may be looking at is reducing the information we duplicate on the police report … the revised (Domestic Incident Report) could become a one-stop shop,” Gerace said. “As for prosecutions, in our agency, I don’t think it will have an impact because we are already doing that data collection as part of a robust investigation and documenting it.”

Harry Snellings, Jamestown police chief, and John Bentley, Lakewood-Busti police chief, similarly said the revisions will not make a big difference to their reporting process.

“These are just administrative changes on the form,” Snellings said. “There is no change on how or what we are doing.”

Police are required by law to complete a Domestic Incident Report whenever they respond to a domestic incident call, regardless of whether they make an arrest. On average, officers statewide complete an estimated 400,000 Domestic Incident Reports every year.