The sheriff made his point in a single sentence, in the middle of a round of introductions. As the Commissioners of St. Mary’s County gathered at their Oct. 6 meeting to proclaim October National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Sheriff Steve Hall, among a line of deputies, prosecutors, advocates and probation officers, said that with “the trend of downward criminal activity, domestic violence is one of the only ones that is going up.” He thanked the team and the community “for their advocacy” and moved on. He did not cite numbers, and the county has not released figures in connection with the proclamation.
The remark gave the otherwise ceremonial item a harder edge. A commissioner who read the proclamation told the room it is “a very serious issue,” one that is “so prevalent in our society” that it is “heartbreaking that you have to keep calling out so much attention to it.” The text describes domestic violence as a problem that touches people “of all ages, races, genders, and socioeconomic backgrounds,” that includes physical, emotional, psychological and economic abuse, and that often goes unreported, leaving survivors “without the support they need to escape dangerous situations.” It urges residents to work toward improving victim safety and calls awareness a year-round commitment, not a monthly one.
The practical help available locally was laid out by the deputy director of the Southern Maryland Center for Family Advocacy, who described the group as the county’s comprehensive provider of programs for survivors of domestic and sexual violence. The center runs a 24-hour hotline that responds whether the call comes from police, a hospital or a survivor. It also offers legal services, including attorneys who represent survivors free of charge, and case management to help people with housing, which the deputy director called “a huge issue” for anyone trying to leave a relationship. Those services are free, the deputy director said, thanks to a network of partners: the commissioners, Maryland State Police, the Sheriff’s Office, the hospital’s response program, the Department of Social Services and the Child Advocacy Center. “St. Mary’s County is small, but mighty,” the deputy director said, “when it comes to our domestic violence response.”
Inside the Sheriff’s Office, much of the follow-up falls to a domestic violence coordinator, a detective corporal who said the job is to check in with victims of intimate-partner violence after an incident and connect them with local resources, the biggest of which is the family advocacy center. The agency’s Domestic Violence Unit handles follow-up investigations of intimate partner crimes and can refer victims to court advocates and explain how to seek a protective order. The Sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Division, the State’s Attorney’s Office victim services staff, parole and probation, the county’s Commission for Women and the Department of Aging and Human Services were also represented at the table. The department’s director closed the item by urging anyone who needs help to seek it, adding that the message is “not just women, but men as well.”
Residents have a chance to take part soon. The center’s annual panel discussion, which a speaker at the meeting called “why don’t they just leave?”, is set for 5 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 19, according to the St. Mary’s County Library calendar, and a center representative said it will be held at the Lexington Park Library. The evening begins with volunteers assembling bags for survivors, which the center’s deputy director said go to people who must enter emergency shelter or be met at the hospital, and continues with a panel of community partners and two survivors. About 70 people came last year, the deputy director said, and the event, which is free and includes light refreshments, started years ago with “me and three of my friends.”
Anyone in immediate danger should call 911. The family advocacy center lists its 24-hour hotline at 240-925-0084, and the National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233, both published on the center’s website.
Whether the sheriff’s observation shows up in the data is the open question. Hall’s remark described a direction, not a size, and no domestic-related case counts were given at the meeting. For now, the county’s response is the same one the proclamation asks of residents: know the resources and use them. The state also has a role in funding that response; the St. Mary’s County State’s Attorney’s Office was awarded a $496,216 Victims of Crime Act grant for its Victim Services Division for fiscal year 2027, and in neighboring Calvert County, management of the Safe Harbor domestic violence shelter changes hands in July.
