Federal grants from the Department of Justice will allow for enhancements to Indiana’s Protective Order Registry, including alerting victims by e-mail or text when an order is about to expire.

Indiana Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard and Congressman Andre Carson made the announcement this morning at the Julian Center, an Indianapolis shelter for domestic violence victims. The $264,000 in grants from the DOJ will also allow for a text or e-mail alert to be sent to victims when a protective order is served; allow the courts to print protective and no-contact orders in English and Spanish; and create a public access website that will allow anyone to look up protective orders over the Internet.

The goal is to have these enhancements ready for use at the beginning of 2011.

Just last year, victim advocates were able to file a petition for a protective order over the Internet thanks to federal funds. It began as a pilot project in eight counties and now 295 advocates have the ability to file a petition for a protective order online.

There are more than 27,600 active protective orders and 41,200 active no-contact orders in the registry.