By Ken Lay
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and Knoxville and Knox County kicked the month off a day early, on Sept. 30, at the Randall E. Nichols Family Justice Center.
The city and county hosted a press conference a day early for a purpose.
“October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and we’re here a day early, and that has a significance,” said Knox County Criminal Court Clerk Mike Hammond. “We’re doing this on Sept. 30 because we’ve served more than 30,000 people.”
“We’re kicking this off today, and we’ll have more events in the coming weeks.”
The Randall E. Nichols Family Justice Center has served 30,000 people since it opened in 2006 to help victims of domestic violence.
“We wanted to raise awareness to let people know that this building is here and it’s available,” Hammond said.
Outside the auditorium where last week’s press conference was held, a memorial shoe display remembered victims who lost their lives to domestic violence from 2020-25.
“We have a shoe display out front which showed that 30 people have been killed by domestic violence from 2020-25,” Hammond said.
Knox County Mayor Betsy Henderson issued a proclamation declaring October Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and District Attorney General Charme Allen also addressed the issue.
“Domestic violence is about power and control, and that’s it,” she said.
“You have crime committed on people by people that they don’t know. But domestic violence is committed on and by people that know each other and are supposed to love each other. There’s no reason for this, and it has to stop.”
Knox County Sheriff Brent Gibson and Knoxville Police Chief Paul Noel both said that domestic violence calls are the most dangerous calls that officers face.
“You just never know what’s going to happen when you have a domestic violence call,” Gibson said. “It’s a call where you have to break up families, and you’re there to do what, in reality, no one wants to do.”
Noel agreed.
“When you get there, you have to determine who is the primary aggressor,” he said. “It’s one of the most challenging calls we face, and it can really be dangerous for our officers.”
The Helen Ross McNabb Center, which also provides services for victims, is partnering with local and state law enforcement throughout October as it has provided car magnets to the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, the Knoxville Police Department, the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the University of Tennessee Police Department.
