Safe at Home program helps protect abuse, rape victims

Since August 2007, more than 2,000 Missourians have used a Jefferson City, Mo., post office box to protect themselves from stalkers, a spokesman for Secretary of State Jason Kander said.

The Safe at Home program allows victims of physical or sexual violence to establish state and local public records under a substitute address, Kevin Flannery said Tuesday.

Instead of using their home addresses, participants have their mail sent to a Jefferson City post office box, Flannery said.

Members of Kander's staff then collect the mail and forward it to participants at their confidential home addresses, he said.

"It's a wonderful resource to folks when they need it," Flannery said. "It plays a very important role in keeping them safe, empowering them."

By keeping their addresses confidential, victims can reduce the likelihood of their abusers tracking them down and causing problems, as happened last summer, when a Jackson man detonated a pipe bomb outside a Cape Girardeau home where his estranged wife was staying.

In March, David Salzmann, 45, pleaded guilty to assault on a law enforcement officer, unlawful manufacture of an illegal weapon and violation of an order of protection in connection with the June 9 explosion, which left him with non-life-threatening injuries and prompted authorities to evacuate the 1200 block of North Spanish Street while they searched for other devices.

Salzmann is set for sentencing May 16.

While Safe at Home applies only to public entities such as courts or state and local government bodies, it makes it more difficult for abusers to track down their victims, Flannery said.

"It certainly reduces the incidence in which there would be opportunities for a confidential address to appear on a search engine like that," he said.

According to a 2009 survey by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 32.9 percent of women and 28.2 percent of men have experienced some form of physical violence at the hands of an intimate partner.

In 2012, police in Missouri responded to 41,494 reports of domestic violence, including 505 calls in Cape Girardeau County and 659 in Scott County, the Missouri State Highway Patrol reported.

epriddy@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

1200 block of North Spanish Street, Cape Girardeau, MO

For more information about the Safe at Home program, including where to sign up, visit http://www.sos.mo.gov/SafeAtHome/.