TULSA, Okla — The City of Tulsa partnered with the Tulsa Police Department and organizations like DVIS to help understand domestic violence and its impact.
Mayor Monroe Nichols made an announcement on social media at the beginning of the month, explaining how Oklahoma and Tulsa County experience a lot of domestic violence cases.
According to findings from the Oklahoma Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board, the number of domestic violence cases have been going up since 2019.
Recently, during Fourth of July weekend, a man confessed to killing his two two 93 year-old grandparents at their senior living center.
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Domestic violence survivor Ashlee Ratliff shared that it's not easy to get through, but she's thankful to people that have helped her along the way.
She said she had to uproot her whole family to keep them safe from her abuser, who is now in jail.
“My kids have severe anxiety now, because they kind of lived through it as well," she said. "I have severe anxiety, I have trouble sleeping at night. I’m always worried.”
Ratliff said she hopes the task force can help with police training, especially since the Tulsa Police Department has partnered with the force.
“Police, when they do their job, are very hardened at what they’re doing," she said. "But when it comes to domestic violence, they have to be soft and compassionate and I never have received that. I think the task force could be helpful training police in how they should respond or maybe even sending advocates out with the police.”
The Mayor's Commissioner of Public Safety, Laurel Roberts is one of the individuals headlining the new task force.
She said it's amazing seeing all of the organizations that have worked with domestic violence in the past come together for a bigger cause.
"It's just an opportunity for us to really dive in and get to the meat of the work, so that we can improve outcomes in our city when it comes to domestic violence and protecting the most vulnerable of our citizens," she said. "We also know that this touches all of the mayor's priorities. We know that he wants to make Tulsa the safest big city, but domestic violence, it touches the homelessness priority as well, and touches children, youth, and families, and it touches our tribal partnerships, and it touches on, our health and well-being of our citizens here."
2 News brought some DV survivor concerns straight to City Hall to get some answers as to how the task force would help.
FLORES: “Is there going to be any focus on training for police as well?”
ROBERTS: “I think that that's a recommendation that comes out of it. We're also partnered with the Ohio State University. To help do some research on those particular aspects within the police department, and so that will help bring to light a lot of the those components.”
When asked about potential expansion into other areas, Roberts said she would be delighted if more areas would like to collaborate.
“If we can share our successes and bring more folks to the table, or be a model for other people that want to start a program, other communities that want to start a program, I'm all for it," she said. "That would be a great, great sign to our success, and the positive results that we're having from something like this."
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