Wichita sees double-digit jump in violent domestic abuse reports amid stay-at-home order
Wichita police said Friday that the city has seen double-digit increases in domestic violence-related aggravated assault and aggravated battery reports since Sedgwick County’s stay-at-home order took effect March 25.
The number of aggravated assaults jumped 65% and aggravated batteries increased 39%, compared to the average number of reports for the same three-week time period in the past three years, the department said in a news release.
The announcement comes just two weeks after Wichita Police Chief Gordon Ramsay on April 3 tweeted crime statistics where he cited a 1% decrease in domestic violence assaults since the stay-at-home order was put into place to help combat the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Domestic violence is abuse that occurs between household or family members, intimate partners or people who are or have been in a dating relationship. Domestic violence-related aggravated assaults and aggravated batteries include more severe forms of physical abuse such as choking, suffocating and threats with a deadly weapon, according to Kansas statute.
In addition to the rise in assaults and batteries, half of the city’s six domestic violence homicides so far this year have occurred since the county’s stay-at-home order took effect. The victims include an 8-year-old girl and her mother who were allegedly shot to death by the child’s father on March 28 and a woman fatally shot by her boyfriend early Tuesday morning before he turned the gun on himself.
Local domestic violence advocates say calls to local abuse hot lines have decreased somewhat in recent weeks, but the physical abuse reported is worse.
“There is a lot more damage to their faces. We have a lot more black eyes. We have a lot more bruising. We have a lot more strangulation,” Harbor House program director Keri McGregor told The Eagle this week, adding that she suspects hot line calls are down now because victims have less time away from their abusers to seek help.
“Abusers don’t anticipate their victims going out in public. So we are seeing a lot more violence,” she said.
Ramsay, in the WPD news release, said the “WPD continues to diligently investigate DV related crimes that affect our city’s families and prosecute those responsible.”
“If you know of someone in a dangerous situation, please reach out, resources are available,” he wrote.
The department is encouraging anyone who is in a dangerous domestic situation, or knows someone who is, to call:
- 911
- the Harbor House Domestic Violence Shelter at 316-263-6000
- the Wichita Family Crisis Center at 316-267-7233
- the Wichita Area Sexual Assault Center at 316-263-3002
- StepStone at 316-265-1611
- the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233
This story was originally published April 17, 2020 at 4:14 PM.
