State Crisis Intervention Program (SCIP)

Funding strategies to improve implementation and enforcement of laws for court-ordered firearm surrender and prohibitions. The DOJ Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program (SCIP) is a comprehensive grant program that focuses on mitigating firearm violence-related risks and identifying connections between firearms and intimate partner abusers and mass violence, community violence and violence against law enforcement. 

About SCIP

In recent years, the Washington Legislature has adopted and strengthened laws to address the possession of firearms by persons who are at risk to themselves or others:

• Authorizing Extreme Risk Protection Orders allowing family and household members or law enforcement to petition a court to temporarily remove firearms from a person who is a threat to self or others
• Requiring firearm dealers to notify law enforcement when an individual prohibited from firearm possession attempts to purchase firearms
• Mandating temporary removal of firearms and presenting firearms licensing and purchase history to the court when there is a 911 response to a domestic violence incident
• Requiring notification of victims before firearms are returned to a person formerly subject to an order or prohibition
• Strengthening firearms prohibitions and procedures for all types of civil protection orders

These measures are constructed to safeguard the constitutional rights of an individual subject to their application. Sustainable, comprehensive, and consistent implementation and enforcement of these laws is essential to their effectiveness. This requires concerted, coordinated, and timely actions taken by courts, law enforcement, victim advocates, prosecutors, and others working in and with the civil and criminal legal systems.

Research has increasingly identified connections between armed intimate partner abusers and mass violence, community violence, and violence against law enforcement. Suicides constitute almost 75% of firearm fatalities in Washington. For all of these types of lethal risks, one of the most important harm reduction measures is court orders that prohibit firearm possession by individuals who present a heightened risk of harm. We know there are steps that can be taken to more effectively, timely, and uniformly issue, serve, and enforce those orders.

OFSVP strategies

In SFY 2023, OFSVP distributed $1 million in state funds to support a suite of initial, time-limited projects to identify steps needed to improve the implementation and enforcement of Washington laws related to removing firearms from individuals and to issue, serve, and enforce court orders that prohibit firearm possession by individuals who present a heightened risk of harm to themselves or others such as Orders to Surrender and Prohibit Weapons (OTSWs) and Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs).

This initial investment confirmed that Washington needs to expand and invest in the adoption of best practices in training, policies, and implementation of firearm relinquishment programs and in making sure system partners and families have access to accurate and accessible information.

Building on the foundational analysis and recommendations developed with the state funding, in the coming years, OFSVP will invest in next steps to improve the implementation and enforcement of Washington laws related to firearms relinquishment and prohibitions using U.S. Department of Justice funding from the Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program (SCIP) created under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act adopted by Congress in 2022.

SCIP is designed to assist state, local, and tribal efforts to prevent or reduce crime and violence, with a particular focus on gun violence and the implementation of extreme risk protection orders in particular. This federal opportunity provides our state with a timely and badly needed opportunity to improve on current efforts to mitigate firearm-related risks through improved use of court orders that prohibit firearm possession by individuals who present a heightened risk of harm.

The SCIP program will run for at least five years. Through grant processes, subawards will be made from the Department of Commerce to government agencies, nonprofit organizations, consultants, researchers, and other qualifying entities, building on efforts already started in the state. At least 40% of the funding will be passed through to local and tribal governments.

Washington has been awarded $5.2 million for the first two years of SCIP. The state is expected to receive approximately half that amount for the three remaining years of the program. Under the guidance of an advisory board, this funding will be directed at improving the implementation of our protection order laws, and — specifically — carrying out the recommendations coming out of last year’s efforts.

In the state of Washington, SCIP funding will be specifically focused on improving the implementation and enforcement of protection order laws that can keep firearms out of the hands of those who pose a threat to themselves or others. Washington’s Byrne SCIP is designed around the following five program areas:

Program funding

In the first few years of the program, distribution of SCIP funding among the five program areas below is expected to track the following approximate percentages:

• 30% – Regional and county wide multi-disciplinary and multi-jurisdictional collaboration approaches.
• 25% – Development and distribution of current, accurate, accessible materials and online tolls for the public and system partners.
• 20% – Development, delivery and adoption of training and model policies for courts, law enforcement, and prosecutors.
• 20% – Research to collect data, evaluate effectiveness and inform policymaking and budgeting.
• 5% – Securing, storing and tracking relinquished firearms.

Resources