Texas VINE: Strengthening Safety, Empowering Victims
VINE is a vital resource for Texas communities, providing free and confidential notification services to victims of crime and their families. By partnering with VINE, law enforcement agencies, victim advocacy groups, and government organizations are helping to enhance public safety, empower victims, and foster a stronger, more informed community.
Why VINE Matters for Texas
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Enhance Victim Safety: Empower survivors to make informed decisions about their safety with real-time notifications about an offender's release, transfer, or escape.
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Streamline Operations: Automate notification processes, saving law enforcement valuable time and resources.
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Greater Transparency: Promote a more open and accessible judicial system, fostering trust and confidence in the legal process.
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Foster Collaboration: Build stronger partnerships between law enforcement, victim advocates, and community organizations to better support survivors.
Proven Success
In 2023, VINE Texas helped to:
- Register almost 261,000 users
- Provide over 832,000 notifications to survivors
- Answer nearly 43,500 calls with sensitivity-trained customer support available 24/7/365
VINE Courts
Texas is in the process of implementing VINE Courts which helps provide automated court case notifications to victims, concerned citizens, and criminal justice agencies. Users are able to search for court cases and receive updates on case events, including hearings, continuances, and sentencing. With VINE Courts, users have 24/7 access to timely and reliable information about court cases, which helps to promote safety and peace of mind.
Expanding Notifications: Adding Notifications Starting at the 911 Call
VINE is committed to supporting victim notification as early as possible. In collaboration with Versaterm, victim notifications can be expanded to begin at the time of the 911 call or incident, offering support and resources before an arrest is even made, with continuing VINE notification service from the time of arrest to custody location changes to release.