Tulsa Group Is Saving Lives With A Phone Call

About 4,000 women are killed each year because of domestic violence in the United States.

Most of those victims are killed while trying to leave.

A group in Tulsa is working on a way to save lives with a simple phone call.

It is called the Tulsa Rapid Response Team.  They work with a lot of agencies to keep victims safe and to hold abusers accountable.

Members of Tulsa's Rapid Response Team are calling domestic violence victims.

The team works to identify which domestic violence situations have the potential to turn deadly, where the victim could be killed by their abuser.

Caspian Green, from Domestic Violence Intervention Services, says "those conversations of preparation is just asking what they want to see happen, what do they need right now, where can we meet you at?"

If the victim wants help, the team can step in.

Suzann Stewart  is the Executive Director of Family Safety Center.  She says, "we want to make sure that the person who is the survivor of this understands where they are, what the potential is, how the relationship is moving forward, and then making sure that law enforcement and the DA, and all of these other agencies that work with the offenders, have information they need to be able to hold this person accountable."

They say it's a tactic that is working to help combat Tulsa's rising domestic violence issues.

"The national statistic is 95% of domestic violence or intimate partner homicides occur when those victims have not accessed any services," said Stewart.  "If we can predict a homicide that is potentially going to happen, we can probably provide the resources to be able to prevent it."

>> Stewart says that in the 6 years the program has existed, not one of the victims the Rapid Response Team has worked with has been killed by their abuser.

"It's homicide prevention at it's finest," exclaimed Stewart.

The Rapid Response Team says they wish every victim would take advantage of their services, because it lowers their chances of being killed.