How to Fill Out and File the LAP Form: Scoring and Referral

The Lethality Assessment Protocol form, usually called the LAP form, is a one-page screen that a responding officer completes at the scene of an intimate partner domestic violence call. You read the eleven yes-or-no questions aloud, record each answer, apply the two-tier scoring to decide whether the victim is high risk, make the on-scene hotline call if the referral is triggered, and attach the completed form to the incident report. The eleven questions come from more than 25 years of research by Dr. Jacquelyn Campbell at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, and the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence built the surrounding intervention program.¹

When to Administer the Screen

You initiate the LAP whenever you respond to a domestic violence call involving intimate partners, whether the situation involves a physical assault, a credible threat of harm, or visible signs of a violent confrontation such as forced entry or property damage. “Intimate partner” covers current and former spouses, cohabitants, and dating partners. The screening happens before you clear the call, so the victim has access to help while the crisis is still unfolding.

The assessment applies even when no arrest is made. Florida, for example, requires every officer investigating intimate partner domestic violence to administer a lethality assessment regardless of whether the incident leads to an arrest.²

Reading the Eleven Questions

Read each question aloud, exactly as written, and record the victim’s response as “Yes,” “No,” or “Not Answered.” The standard screen used by law enforcement contains these eleven items:³

Has he/she ever used a weapon against you or threatened you with a weapon?
Has he/she threatened to kill you or your children?
Do you think he/she might try to kill you?
Does he/she have a gun or can he/she get one easily?
Has he/she ever tried to choke you?
Is he/she violently or constantly jealous, or does he/she control most of your daily activities?
Have you left him/her or separated after living together or being married?
Is he/she unemployed?
Has he/she ever tried to kill himself/herself?
Do you have a child that he/she knows is not his/hers?
Does he/she follow or spy on you or leave threatening messages?

The questions are built to capture concrete facts about the relationship rather than subjective impressions, which keeps the screen consistent from officer to officer. Record what the victim says. Don’t filter or interpret.

Scoring the Answers

The eleven questions split into two tiers. Questions 1 through 3 carry the most weight: a single “Yes” to any one of them automatically triggers the protocol referral and classifies the victim as high risk. If the answers to all three of those are “No,” a referral is still triggered when the victim answers “Yes” to four or more of questions 4 through 11.³

There is also an officer override. Even when neither scoring threshold is met, you can trigger the protocol referral based on your own judgment that the victim is in a potentially lethal situation.³ Prior history with the parties or behavioral cues the questions don’t capture are legitimate grounds. Mark the override box on the form so the reason the referral was initiated is clear in the record.

Making the Protocol Referral

When the screen comes back high risk, the referral is not a pamphlet drop. First, tell the victim plainly that people in situations like theirs have been killed. That direct statement is the piece most officers find hardest, and it is the piece the research says motivates victims to accept help. Then call the local 24-hour domestic violence hotline from the scene and hand the phone to the victim.⁴ The advocate discusses immediate safety planning, emergency shelter, and protective order information while you stay nearby to maintain physical safety during the call.

The hand-off is the point of the whole protocol. No hold queue, no callback during business hours, no starting the story over. The advocate already knows you ran a lethality screen and that the victim scored high risk.⁵

When the Victim Doesn’t Screen In or Refuses the Call

If the victim doesn’t meet the high-risk threshold but you sense genuine fear, still offer the hotline number and information about local domestic violence services. The victim should leave the encounter knowing how to reach an advocate later.

If a high-risk victim refuses to take the phone, don’t force it. Speak with the advocate yourself, relay what you know, and make sure the victim has the hotline number and shelter information before you leave. Document on the form that the referral was offered and declined. Stay at the scene until the referral has been offered or explicitly refused.⁷

Filing the Completed Form

The completed LAP becomes part of the official police report. In practice, the physical form is scanned into the department’s records management system and attached to the offense or incident report as a PDF. Agencies partnered with domestic violence organizations also share the screening results directly with the partnering advocate program so advocates can follow up with the victim.

The form captures three categories of information that need to be legible and complete before you file:

The victim’s answers to all eleven questions.
Whether the protocol referral was triggered, and which path triggered it (first-tier “Yes,” four or more second-tier “Yes” answers, or officer override).
The outcome of the referral: the victim spoke with an advocate, refused the call, or was unable to participate.

What Protection the Form Does and Doesn’t Carry

What the victim says to the hotline advocate during the on-scene call is generally shielded by state victim-advocate privilege statutes. Wisconsin, for example, protects confidential communications between a victim and a victim advocate acting within the scope of their duties, and the privilege can be claimed by the victim, a guardian, or the advocate on the victim’s behalf.⁸

The LAP form itself is a different matter. It lives in the police report and is treated as a law enforcement record, because the answers were given to you, not to an advocate. Expect the form’s contents to be available for bond hearings, protective order proceedings, and prosecution. The conversation on the phone with the advocate is the privileged part; the written screen is not.

Separately, any domestic violence program receiving Violence Against Women Act funding must protect personally identifying information collected during services and cannot disclose it without the victim’s informed, written, time-limited consent, with notification to the victim if a court order compels disclosure.⁹ That obligation sits on the advocacy program, not on the police report.

Training You Need Before You Administer It

The questions look simple, but administering the LAP correctly requires training on the referral conversation itself: telling someone their partner may kill them, making the hotline call, and handling a refusal. States that mandate the LAP build the training requirement into the mandate. Florida prohibits officers from administering the lethality assessment without first completing an approved training course and requires all sworn law enforcement personnel to finish that training by October 1, 2026. Each agency head must certify compliance in writing by November 1, 2026, and the state reports noncompliant agencies to the Governor and legislative leadership by January 2027.²

Approved courses cover what the lethality assessment is, when and how to administer it on a domestic violence call, how to connect the victim with the local domestic violence center, and what to include in the police report and filing packet.¹⁰ The weight of the training sits on the human piece: tone, how to encourage a reluctant victim to take the phone, and how to communicate danger without sounding accusatory or dismissive. Check your own state and agency requirements before you administer the screen for the first time.

1
Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence. Lethality Assessment Program for First Responders
2
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 741.29 – Domestic Violence; Investigation of Incidents; Notice to Victims of Legal Rights and Remedies; Reporting
3
FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. Domestic Violence Lethality Screen for First Responders
4
National Institute of Justice. A Closer Look at the Lethality Assessment Program
5
New Hampshire Department of Justice. Lethality Assessment Program
6
7
National Institute of Justice. A Closer Look at the Lethality Assessment Program

If the victim is unable or unwilling to answer the questions at all, note that in the written police report and still refer the victim to the nearest domestic violence center.6The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 741.29 – Domestic Violence; Investigation of Incidents; Notice to Victims of Legal Rights and Remedies; Reporting
8
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 905.045 – Domestic Violence or Sexual Assault Advocate-Victim Privilege
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 34 USC 12291 – Definitions and Grant Provisions
10
Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Lethality Assessment Training for Law Enforcement