County launches Bridge to Safety for victims of domestic violence
By Ken Lay
Knox County officially launched its Bridge to Safety program Tuesday afternoon at the City-County Building.
The program, which will aid victims of domestic violence in Knox County, will be funded by the office of Criminal Court Clerk Mike Hammond.
“Every 27 seconds, there’s an act of domestic violence, and since Jan. 1, we’ve had 600 people come in, make the trip down here to the City-County Building, and request an order of protection,” Hammond said. A lot of times, people come in here and they have suitcases and they’ve made the decision to leave and now, that’s a difficult decision. Many of them are women, and sometimes, they bring their children.
“Every Thursday, we have an order of protection court, and we have anywhere from 50-100 cases every Thursday.”
Hammond said that his office will not and cannot offer legal advice, but the workers in the Bridge to Safety will help the victims determine what’s next after they fill out an order of protection.
“Let me be clear,” he said. “We’re not offering legal advice and we can’t offer legal advice, but we can see what their basic needs are. ‘Do you need food? Do you need car seats? Do you need diapers? Do you need a place to stay? Do you need to talk to law enforcement?’”
Hammond also noted that victims who file orders of protection will be contacted by the program within 72 hours.
The Bridge to Safety is one of three programs recently launched by Knox County, Hammond said. The county also has a community service program, which allows defendants to repay court costs, and a driver’s license renewal program.
“We want to meet people where they are,” Hammond said. “We have a driver’s license renewal program and we have a community service program where people can work out their court costs.”
The program will have partnerships with the Knoxville Police Department, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office and Knox County District Attorney Charme Allen.
The county will also have a 24-hour domestic abuse hotline.
“We’ll have a 24-hour hotline and we’ll have people manning the phones, because domestic violence doesn’t just happen between 9 and 5,” Hammond said.
He also noted that services can be provided in multiple languages and that the highest incidents of domestic violence occur on weekends and during the holiday season between Christmas and New Year’s Day.
“The Family Justice Center is closed for two weeks during Christmas,” Hammond said.
The website is under construction at www.bridgetosafetytn.org.
