Office of the Iron County Sheriff
Victim Services Unit

(906) 875-0633

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What is the Victim Services Unit?

The Victim Service Unit is a team of trained volunteers dedicated to helping all victims and survivors work through a crisis or crime against them. They are the "Helping Hands" of the police, fire and medical personnel. They free the departments up to do their jobs without leaving the victim "out in the cold" or ignored. The objective is to avoid further victimization.

What are the purposes of the Victim Service Unit?

The purpose of this program is to assist all persons that have experienced trauma.

The unit is designed to:

• Comfort and help victims and survivors immediately at the scene, providing short term crisis intervention, and make referrals to appropriate agencies and services within the community, according to particular needs.
• Serve as a go-between for victims, survivors, their families, and scene officials and emergency service providers.
• Aid and educate victims and survivors as to their rights, the Victim Compensation Board, and the judicial system.
• Help when and wherever needed.

How it works?

The unit may be activated by notifying the Iron County Sheriff’s Department. Any law enforcement officer, fire personnel, and medical personnel may call out the team. The unit will then be paged out via the Iron County "911" Dispatchers.

The unit shall be called out for:

• Homicides, suicides, any traumatic deaths, including fatal traffic accidents, farm accidents, or serious injury accidents.
• Criminal sexual conduct complaints.
• Child abuse complaints.
• Domestic abuse and/or assault cases.
• House fires.
• Natural disasters.
• Lost children.
• Natural or sudden unexpected deaths.
• Death notifications.
• Economic property/fraudulent crimes.
• Any crimes or incidents that have exposed victims/survivors or witnesses to emotional or physical trauma.

Iron County Victim Services Volunteer Team Members:

Thank You

OUR COMMITMENT

Volunteers of the Iron County Sheriff Office Victim Services Unit are trained by a Michigan Sheriff Association trainer for an initial 20 hours with ongoing follow-up training. Advocates are bound by policy and procedures developed by the Sheriff Office but are available to ANY law enforcement or emergency services provider in Iron County.

CONFIDENTIALITY

Confidentiality is required and adhered to by all advocates and information is only shared with associate advocates in the event they need to assume responsibility for a case. Victims are informed that whatever they say will be repeated to the investigator in the event that it will help the case.

For information on how to become a volunteer, call (906) 875-0633.