we're here today to sound an alarm uh we already know that we have an economic crisis in this country what we want to talk about today is the fact that the economic crisis is causing a crisis in Family Violence and we have data right here in Milwaukee that backs that assertion up uh the economy is declining and people talk about the relationship of the economy and crime but we assert that they're asking the wrong question uh in my experience the fact that a factory worker gets laid off does not create a purse snatcher unemployed people don't suddenly start breaking into their neighbors houses but where we do see the effects of the economy first are on the stresses they placed on families particularly families that are already at risk it's been demonstrated time and again that poorer families are 22% more likely to experience domestic violence or child abuse than middle- inome families and when there is an economic downturn those families are fa placed under even even more stress and that stress can really result in additional violence our first quarter crime numbers bear out some frightening uh uh statistics about the impact of the economy on Family Violence in the first quarter of this year uh we've had 17 homicides of those 17 homicides 40% have involved domestic violence either the murder of a partner or the death a child through abuse Now understand some context last year for the entire year 21% of our homicides were domestic violence related including child abuse for the preceding 10 years no year was more than 10% we've already seen this year in three months twice the number of Family Violence homicides that we average over the course of 10 years now you've got a graph that we provided you it gives you an information that uh documents this startling and concerning Trend now the challenge for me as a police official is the following um you know we use crime mapping we're datadriven I can put cops on the crime dots when those dots are on the city's streets I can't put the cops inside people's houses what we need is community engage engagement and involvement now I've said before Public Safety isn't a spectator sport but nowhere is this more true than an aspects of Family Violence where the issues first come to the attention of Neighbors extended family and friends people in those circumstances who are alert to stresses on families and perhaps suspicious that there's violence in those families need to step forward and I have with me today a number of Community Partners who provide services that could assist people in helping their neighbors avoid um Family Violence now one of the most important tools we have to prevent child abuse is Parental coaching parental coaching takes place right here at heart love and parental coaching is part of one of President Obama's uh economic uh proposals in his upcoming budget uh parental coaching has been proved to cut by 50% instances of child abuse and neglect and the fact is that we've got many people who quite frankly don't know how to parent because they didn't get a chance to learn that at home in the first place um I'm a board member of an outfit known as fight crime invest in kids uh this is a National Organization made up of police Chiefs districts attorneys and U Crime Victims who bring to the attention of policy makers and lawmakers data that proves that early childhood education quality daycare and parental coaching all have dramatic impacts on crime and dramatic impacts in the reduction of child abuse and neglect as a matter of fact just last Friday I was part of a press conference with other major City Chiefs from Los Angeles and Boston and uh and Philadelphia in which we drew attention to this issue the issue that the economy is having an impact on family crime and domestic violence and the fact that thoughtful investments in quality daycare preschool and parental coaching can have an impact um I strongly support these programs and I certainly support what's being done here at heart love once law enforcement gets involved in one of these family circumstances the damage has already been done not only to the immediate victim of that crime but also longitudinally it's been well demonstrated that people who are exposed to child abuse as a young child that survive uh sadly all too often find themselves involved with crime or other social dysfunctions so as we focus on prevention in this economic downturn it's very important that we as a community uh accept Our obligation to protect protect not only our own children but the children of our neighbors you know we often say it takes a village to raise a child well in this case it's going to take a village to save children and those Villages are our neighborhoods I want to bring forward mayor Tom Barrett whose Commission on violence and sexual assault has uh been taking the lead on the prevention of Family Violence for years and is certainly going to do so now Mr Mayor thank you very much Chief and uh thank you for your leadership on this issue as well uh often times I stand with the chief to talk about crime in our community um and I thank the police department for the great work that they do and I do that again today but I think we all recognize that this is an area where our Milwaukee Police Department really can't solve the problem um they can be there after they find out about the problem the crisis the beating the death but as the chief said we cannot will not and should not have police officers in every home in this community that's why we have to focus as a community on prevention I know as a father it can be very frustrating with young children I know families that are economically stressed and the tension that that produces but think about it for a moment that momentary loss of control of an adult can change a child's life forever we have to have parents and I understand parents and caregivers are stressed we have to have parents and caregivers who understand that when they're stressed when that infant is crying and is not stopping crying and is frustrating as it is that you the parent the caregiver you step back you don't shake the baby you don't hold the baby or hit the baby in a way that hurts the baby this affects real families and the child if he or she lives will be marked by that for the rest of their life and so the message that I want to deliver to all the parents and caregivers in this community is take a step back if you feel that you're losing control I know it's not easy but we're talking about our children we're talking about this community's children and I don't want to do more events like this with our police chief because that only marks our failure our failure to prevent what we all can prevent if we are working together now there are resources in our community to help you the housing authorities Family Violence has F has violence prevention programs for its residents our Fatherhood Initiative connects young dads to family strengthening programs National research shows that home visitation programs like our nurse Family Partnership play a major role in prevention of violence there are Hospital education based parenting programs which are also effective in teaching Families how to deal with crying babies there are comprehensive training programs for child care workers all of this is very important but we need to take this to all the homes in this city and this can be done neighbor to neighbor friend to friend there are many mothers there are many fathers who are frustrated they need someone to talk to they need that friend that relative of that neighbor to give them that little timeout for themselves not in a negative way but to let them relieve themselves of the stressful situation so this is a time again when there is economic arrest where we need each other this city needs each other to prevent more child abuse in this community we can do it we have to do it I'm pleased to say that there are community members that are already stepping forward to help us to do even more Children's Hospital has offered to help us identify community stakeholders who will form sustaining prevention strategies we accept that offer and I want to thank Peggy Troy and Kenneth mson of children's hospital for making that generous offer but we need to bring more families more neighbors more Community groups into do this because they're your children they're my children and most importantly they're our children