GARDEN CITY, Idaho — One in four women, and one in seven men will experience domestic violence in their lifetime, according to the National Network to End Domestic Violence.
The Garden City Police Department (GCP) shared on social media, they have responded to 333 calls for domestic violence or domestic disturbances, just this year; and the year is not over. That is an increase of 140 calls from last year, according to the GCP, something that is concerning for police.
The news comes as October is domestic violence awareness month.
“The uptick in domestic violence is hard to put your thumb on, there's no bright line answer you can give as to why there's an uptick," said Lt. Tom Patterson with the Garden City Police Department. "During the pandemic, we did see a huge increase in domestic violence calls and that was pretty much in relation to the people being held into their homes and not having the ability to get away from their abuser for, you know, to go to work or do whatever they would normally do during the day.”
He told KTVB, domestic violence calls can sometimes be some of the most difficult calls to respond to.
“Over my long career, I’ve responded to many domestic violence calls. Some of these are very volatile, very violent situations," Patterson said, "it's very hard to see the impact to the victim, the impact to the children, they're very difficult scenes to go to.”
If you are in this type of situation, Patterson said to call the police and if you are unable to do that, reach out to other local agencies like Faces of Hope or WCA, also known as the Women's and Children’s Alliance. They are there to help and have the resources to get you out of dangerous situations.
Staying in those situations can be detrimental to your health and in some cases, the violence can lead to serious injury to you, your children or family or even death, according to Patterson.
If you suspect someone in your family or a friend is in this type of situation, you can also report it to law enforcement.
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