Special Victims K-9 Unit

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2016

Sometimes just being in the physical courtroom itself can be stressful for kids. And then when you factor in the content of what they may have to discuss in their testimony, overall, it can be a traumatic experience. Asking a child to recall horrific details in a courtroom full of strangers, with his or her abuser staring from across the room, is a painful and sometimes embarrassing situation. To ease these fears, the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office created the Special Victims K-9 Unit, to ultimately help better serve our most vulnerable victims, our children. Our main goal is to greatly reduce the understandable fears that a child has about entering the courtroom. Doing so is beneficial to everybody involved because when the child is calm and feeling more confident, it is likely that we can more effectively obtain justice.