The Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) will implement the Lethality Assessment Program (LAP) across the Commonwealth, the force announced in Harrisburg on Wednesday, November 4 — a statewide adoption of an evidence-based screening system designed to identify domestic violence survivors who are at heightened risk of being killed and connect them with lifesaving support at the scene, before troopers leave.
Source: Pennsylvania State Police, November 4, 2026
"This program is another valuable tool that allows our Troopers to proactively identify and prevent victims of domestic violence from suffering further abuse by connecting them with trained domestic violence advocates and other critical resources that could save their lives," said Lieutenant Colonel George L. Bivens, Acting Commissioner for the Pennsylvania State Police. "This implementation also signifies an important milestone in ensuring the LAP reaches each one of our 67 counties across our Commonwealth."
How the screening works when a trooper answers a call
The PSP has developed training based on the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence's (PCADV) LAP model. It will enable troopers who respond to qualifying domestic violence incidents to use a standardized lethality screening process to identify factors associated with increased risk of homicide. In the PCCD's published guidance on the program, the screening weighs risk factors such as access to firearms, a history of strangulation, escalating violence and threats of homicide.
When an individual is identified as being at elevated risk, troopers can facilitate an immediate connection with a local domestic violence advocate or hotline. That connection allows the victim to receive safety planning, advocacy, shelter referrals and other available services. "When victims of domestic violence are found to be in high danger, promptly calling the hotline helps reduce the potential for homicide by connecting them to life-saving services," said Lois Fasnacht, PCADV's LAP Training Specialist. "This immediate connection can help to move survivors from victimized to empowered."
Why the State Police adoption matters most in rural Pennsylvania
Advocates have specifically been asking the State Police to adopt the program because PSP troopers are the primary police force across much of rural Pennsylvania, where the nearest domestic violence program can be far away. "As I've traveled across the Commonwealth and met with advocates and victim service providers, we've heard how much they've appreciated when police departments have adopted the Lethality Assessment Program," said Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis, who chairs the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD). "They've been asking for the State Police to adopt this innovative and proven program statewide, to ensure victims receive the support they need, particularly in the more rural communities that PSP covers."
Fourteen years in the making — and a Maryland model with a measured result
Pennsylvania has supported municipal police agencies taking part in LAP since 2012, through partnerships involving the PCCD and the PCADV and a mix of state and federal funding. PCADV uses Maryland's nationally recognized Lethality Assessment Program as its model; in Maryland, domestic violence-related deaths dropped 32% between 2008 and 2013, the State Police noted. In the last two years alone, LAP was implemented across 62 new police departments in Pennsylvania, and with the PSP adoption the program now sits with 493 other law enforcement agencies and 52 domestic violence programs statewide.
"For nearly 15 years, PCADV has worked with law enforcement across the Commonwealth on the Lethality Assessment Program," said Susan Higginbotham, PCADV's Chief Executive Officer. "The coalition is overjoyed by the planned implementation of this lifesaving tool by the Pennsylvania State Police in all 67 counties of the state because LAP has been proven to reduce lethality." Kathy Buckley, Director of PCCD's Office of Victims' Services, added: "Through the Lethality Assessment Program, we are identifying those at the highest risk and connecting them immediately to life-saving safety and support."
Until now, whether a domestic violence call triggered a lethality screening depended on which police department answered it. With the State Police adopting LAP, a trooper responding to a qualifying call anywhere in the Commonwealth — including rural townships with no local police force — will run the same standardized screening, and a survivor flagged as high-danger can be connected to an advocate or hotline immediately, at the scene, for safety planning, advocacy and shelter referrals.
Part of a wider victims' package — and what happens next
The announcement sits inside the Shapiro-Davis Administration's broader victims' program. Last month, Lieutenant Governor Davis joined the PSP, the Pennsylvania Coalition to Advance Respect (PCAR) and the Pennsylvania Department of Health to launch the Commonwealth's first statewide sexual assault kit tracking system. The administration has also secured $19.5 million in funding for PCCD's Victims Compensation Assistance Program (VCAP) since 2023, including $4.5 million in the 2026-27 budget, and Governor Josh Shapiro signed a bill into law last year to help domestic violence survivors collect unemployment benefits if they must leave their jobs over safety concerns. The next step for LAP itself is the trooper training rollout the PSP says it has developed, after which the screening becomes part of how troopers handle qualifying domestic violence calls in all 67 counties.
For Pennsylvania's Punjabi and wider immigrant communities — concentrated around Philadelphia and its suburbs, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and the Lehigh Valley — the practical change is the one Davis described: the first officer at the door, even in a rural township, will now be trained to spot the warning signs of a killing before it happens and to make the call to an advocate while still at the scene, rather than leaving a survivor to find help alone afterwards.