What inspired your agency to partner with the 911 Cell Phone Bank (911CPB)?

The lack of cell phone resources available to victims. The abuser may have control over access to the victim’s communications, or the abuser will continue to stalk their victim who is unable to afford to change phone numbers or the phone carrier without the suspects’ knowledge.

What benefits has your department and community experienced since using the 911CPB program?

We can quickly provide a lifeline to victims with very short notice. This is also a safe and secure way to dispose of and recycle small electronic devices from our property-and-evidence room.

Can you share an experience where a victim of domestic violence has benefited from a 911CPB cell phone or another electronic device?

Here are three experiences:

1. A family with an abusive husband (both physically and sexually) was controlling the communications of the family, was abusing the mother, verbally and physically abusive to the mother-in-law who lived with the family, and he was beginning to sexually abuse the 12-year-old daughter. These 3 females were trying to escape the abuser and went to the rape crisis center for help. After forensic exams, an attempt was made to change the passwords and location traffic on their devices; this failed since the abuser had full access to all their devices. The 911 Cell Phone Bank provided 911CPB cellphones for the adult female victims, which enabled them to escape the abuser’s tracking attempts. This made them feel safe enough to escape their abuser.
2. The Partnership Crisis Center had only a few toys on hand to keep a child occupied while the parent (victim) was seeking services or going to court. The 911 Cell Bank provided us with an iPad mini, which the Partnership loaded with games. This allowed the parent to receive counseling services or be in the courtroom while their child could be kept safe in a separate room with something to do and to keep them entertained.
3. A rape victim felt unsafe because she believed her rapist was able to track her location via her cell phone. Once he was released from jail on bond, she thought he would track her down. The cell phone provided to her by the 911CPB gave her the needed sense of security which allowed her to move forward with her recovery.

What encouragement would you offer to others who are interested in donating phones and other electronic devices to the 911CPB?

Donating your used devices provides a lifeline and a sense of security to victims. The program provides a safe and secure way to recycle your cell phone or other small electronic devices. For an evidence room (law enforcement), the 911CPB has a proven track record of safely recycling and deleting all data from electronic devices at no cost to the agency. Safe, simple, and low-cost.

What advice or feedback would you offer to other law enforcement or victims’ agencies if they are considering becoming an agency partner with the 911CPB?

Contact the 911CPB! They are friendly, helpful, and will explain the process. I’ve been in Law Enforcement for over 38 years, and this is one of the few organizations which provides an extremely important service to victims: a lifeline in the form of a free cellphone. The program provides evidence/property rooms with a safe and secure disposal process of devices, which in turn provides a needed service to the victims and to the investigators of these violent crimes.