WILLIAM CITTY: Forty years in law enforcement and 14 years as police chief is a long time. I grew up in this community. I care about this community. I know the people in this community. What draws me to the work I do is getting to work with some incredible human beings that want to make things better.
We knew Oklahoma City had a domestic violence problem, and we also had, per capita, an extremely high domestic violence homicide rate. We found, in dealing with homicide victims, in dealing with robbery victims, or even burglaries, there's a tie to domestic violence. It came to light through our Victim Services Program what the need was. The Family Justice Center really encapsulates everything you'd ever want for somebody that's trying to get out of an abusive environment. You have to have mental health treatment. You have to have services for people that have addiction, counseling services.
WOMAN: And just last week we did about seven exams, and so we're up and running here.
WILLIAM CITTY: And it evolves around helping people through education so that we can reduce the number of people that we're having to arrest and put in jail. That's the only way. All these agencies were doing great things, but they were doing it on their own.
KIM GARRETT, LMSW, NACP, CEO PALOMAR: And Palomar changed that because it's so much more efficient to just walk down the hall and talk to somebody. And one of our partners said it cut seven weeks of wait time between agencies to seven minutes.
WILLIAM CITTY: My detectives, when they went to Palomar and they started working with other agencies, they see what they're doing is actually helping an individual. They're helping a person get out of that situation and changing their lives in a very short period of time.
DAVID PRATER, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, OKLAHOMA COUNTY, OKLAHOMA: We now are able to provide services through the Family Justice Center to families who have experienced domestic violence issues in a way that we never had before.
WILLIAM CITTY: By having a daycare at the Family Justice Center, we are really, really helping facilitate a victim that may not ever want to go to court because of the barriers, and I think it's been hugely beneficial. We know what each other does, and we're supporting each other. This is the way law enforcement should be working.
