Suburban police in Franklin County are far less likely to make an arrest in a domestic violence incident than central Ohio's two largest law enforcement agencies, a Columbus Dispatch investigation found.

The disparity between urban and suburban enforcement was so great last year that the Columbus Division of Police and the Franklin County Sheriff's Office were twice as likely to file charges on a domestic violence run than police in the suburbs, according to the newspaper's analysis of domestic violence data from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation.

Since 1984, police agencies have been required to submit monthly reports on the number of domestic violence incidents they responded to and how many of them resulted in charges being filed.

That information helps shed light on how local law enforcement agencies handle cases of domestic violence.

In suburban Franklin County, available data show wide differences in how police deal with domestic violence. Arrest rates last year varied from 8 percent to 90 percent. Some agencies ignored the law and didn't report any information to BCII.

Overall, suburban agencies made arrests in about 55 percent of their runs last year. Columbus police and Franklin County sheriff deputies made arrests in 75 percent of their cases.

The analysis stunned advocates for victims of domestic violence.

"We're not where we were 10 years ago, but this is still staggering," said Karen Days, president of the Columbus Coalition Against Family Violence, a nonprofit group founded by Abigail Wexner in 1998.

The disparity in arrest rates worries Days. All agencies are supposed to operate under a uniform "preferred arrest" policy. That policy instructs officers to arrest the primary aggressor when there is evidence of domestic violence.

"Law enforcement of old would tell the aggressor to take a walk around the block. With these numbers, I'm concerned that that's still happening -- that (police) are making a judgment call," Days said.

Suburban agencies say they're following the law and making arrests when the situation warrants it.

"When an officer can ID a primary aggressor and has probable cause that violence occurred, we expect an arrest," said Lt. Scot McKinley of the Reynoldsburg Division of Police.

Of suburban departments, Reynoldsburg police made the most runs in 2008 -- 275 -- and charged someone with domestic violence in approximately 48 percent of those runs.

Last year, New Albany police had one of the lowest arrest rates for domestic violence in Franklin County at 8 percent. Police did not make an arrest in 32 of 36 domestic violence runs.

Sgt. Greg Jones said that number doesn't accurately depict how New Albany police handle domestic violence.

For example, many of those calls were for non-violent disturbances, such as a mother calling police to have them persuade her children to go to school. But New Albany reports that because it is a domestic incident.

"We called the state for guidance, and they said when in doubt, include it," he said.

Such broad interpretations of domestic violence don't help anyone, said Kristi Timbrook, director of the legal task force for the family violence coalition.

"We don't want people screaming at one another to be considered domestic violence," she said.

True domestic violence includes coercion, manipulation and control over a household member, she said.

Confusion over what constitutes domestic violence bolsters an argument made by advocates for victims: Ohio doesn't really know where it stands on domestic violence because the laws leave too much too interpretation.

In 1996, an Ohio Supreme Court task force found that domestic violence laws were applied inconsistently throughout the state and that statistics on domestic violence were inadequate.

Thirteen years later, those findings still hold true.

Unlike New Albany, police in Grove City only report confirmed cases of domestic violence to the state.

Last year, Grove City reported that its officers made an arrest on nearly all domestic-violence runs. But if they had followed New Albany's lead and reported every run, Grove City's arrest rate would plummet to 7 percent.

Some agencies, including Upper Arlington, didn't report any information to BCII in 2008, despite the state law requiring it.

The failure to report was an oversight and, after receiving a letter from the Ohio Attorney General's office in April, the office began submitting the required information, said Heather Galli, spokeswoman for the Upper Arlington Division of Police.

More than 300 police agencies received a similar letter from the attorney general's office reminding them that the law requires them to report information about domestic violence. But if departments continue to ignore the law, there is no penalty.

In Franklin County, Brice, Madison Township, Mifflin Township, Valleyview and Worthington are not reporting, according to BCII.

Analysis of reports submitted by the complying suburban agencies showed a 25-percent decline in domestic violence investigations between what was reported in 2005 and what was reported in 2008. The Ohio Attorney General's office has yet to comply with a Dispatch public-records request made in September for reports from the years 2000-2004 and 2006-2007.

Yet the county's leading help agency, CHOICES, has been busier than ever with increased calls from women who need help escaping abusers, said Gail Heller, executive director of the Columbus agency that assists victims of domestic violence.

And the calls are not just coming from women with no money and no place else to go.

CHOICES serves victims across the socio-economic spectrum. While the poorest often end up in shelters because they don't have money to go elsewhere, victims in the suburbs have other escape routes.

"Sometimes, they have other economic resources and can physically leave for a period of time -- kind of do their own time-out without having to come to a shelter. Or maybe they've got family that's able to assist them," Heller said.

She also acknowledged that some suburban victims are less likely to call the police because they don't want neighbors, friends and their children's classmates to know what happens at home.

Based on reports submitted in 2005 and 2008, domestic violence runs decreased in Hilliard by 20 percent, in Grove City by more than 40 percent and in Westerville by 75 percent.

Comparing those two years, however, domestic violence runs increased in Bexley, Dublin, Gahanna, Groveport, New Albany, Reynoldsburg and Sharon Township, data shows. Yet four of those agencies -- Bexley, Dublin, Groveport and New Albany -- had lower charge rates in 2008 than in 2005.

Advocates say that with recent changes to domestic violence laws, arrest rates should be increasing.

"We're relying on law enforcement to arrest the primary aggressor," Heller said. "The law is written so that they don't have to use their discretion."

But clearly, discretion remains at play.

Dispatch library researcher Julie Albert contributed to this story.