The Cheektowaga, New York, Police Department entered into a joint endeavor with Haven House, the local battered womenþs shelter, and the National Conference, a human relations organization, to recognize diversity and combat prejudice. In addition, they worked to develop a new way of responding to domestic violence and helping victims transcend their abusers. Their objectives were to dispel myths about victims that officers may harbor, to increase interpersonal and communication skills of responding officers, to reduce bias and discrimination by officers toward victims, to increase officersþ ability to recognize the violent human dynamics in domestic scenarios, and to develop data identifying areas for growth and improvement. The partners focused most of the training efforts on addressing attitude issues and officersþ misconceptions because they appeared to be the root cause of communication problems between officers and victims. Table, note