Detective Dierdri Fishel
WE DARE YOU!
Recognize the signs! Domestic violence can happen to anyone—it doesn’t matter what your marital status or sexual orientation is. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence:
- One in every four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime.
- An estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year.
- 85% of domestic violence victims are women.
- Historically, females have been the most often victimized by someone they knew.
- Females who are 20-24 years of age are at the greatest risk of non-fatal intimate partner violence.
- Most cases of domestic violence are never reported to police.
If you or someone you know is in danger, call the US National Domestic Violence hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for anonymous and confidential help 24/7.
A Real-Life CSI
October 2011
According to the Centers for Disease Control, Domestic Violence affects more than 32 million Americans alone. Thankfully there are women like Deirdri Fishel who fight to make important changes happen, and are succeeding. This busy law enforcement officer’s phone rings around-the-clock with casework demands and requests for speaking appearances and training engagements.
Deirdri has been a detective for the State College, Pennsylvania police department since 2004, and most of her cases have involved abuse against women. She has been the primary investigator and case manager of the Centre County Victim Centered Intensive Case Management Unit. Her work is not without danger. “You become this person who empowers victims. The fear of batterers seeking revenge is always in the back of my head. Nobody enjoys handling domestic violence calls,” she confesses. “I didn’t originally want to take this on.”
But early on in her career, Deirdri was asked to join a domestic violence steering committee and something clicked—she knew that she could make a difference there. The group started a review of the murder of Amy Homan McGee. Deirdri organized the facts on a paper timeline, and when it was completed, the committee asked her to present the information to her colleagues. “It snowballed into this one-and-a-half hour training for law enforcement officials with me standing on stage and reading it aloud,” she explains. “The audience was stunned by what had happened. And as I looked out and saw their reaction, it was hard for me to take in their raw emotion.”
Amy’s story became a Public Television documentary with the star power of Law and Order, SVU’s Mariska Hartigay, who introduces the film. It has been distributed worldwide, stimulating awareness about Domestic Violence on college campuses, as well as to community organizations. “The signs were there that Amy would end up either severely hurt or dead if she did not get help—and that is exactly what happened. Other women are in the same position and either haven’t reached out for support—or if they did, haven’t gotten it. We need to do a better job than this,” Deirdri says emphatically. “We’re working hard on this, and we’ve seen big changes take place in our county. Before Amy, there were so many gaps in the system. We now are able to follow-up within 24-48 hours of an arrest for domestic violence. And victims are not making choices to testify based on fear, but are stepping out and letting their voices be heard.”
A wife and mother of two sons and a stepdaughter, Deirdri’s busy life is 24/7. Just earlier this year, she traveled to San Diego to provide training to NCIS, military investigators as well as local law enforcement from agencies surrounding the military bases. Not every day is easy though. When asked about bad days, she says she’s had a lot of them, but she always springs back. “Just when I think I can’t take one more day of domestic violence, I get a phone call or a letter from a former victim and I realize how I’ve impacted her life. And if she can rise above it, so can I.”
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