October is Awareness Month

Beginning October 1, the Aransas Pass PD will demonstrate our support and fulfillment for bringing awareness to breast cancer and family violence awareness. This year marks the first time we have couple Family Violence awareness with cancer awareness. Pink badges signify breast cancer awareness, and purple represents family violence awareness.  

• In one’s lifetime, 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer.  
• In 2023, it is estimated that 297,000 women and 2,800 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer.  

Yes! Men get breast cancer, too, and I am sure we all can relate to a close friend or family member who has suffered. If caught early, the survival rate from this cancer is around 99%. Statistical information is brought to you by the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Visit their site for more details.

Though APPD isn’t a stranger to handling and advocating for victims of family violence, we engage in many programs meant to target vulnerable men and women and family violence situations, striving to bring relief to victims. Over the past few years, the APPD Crisis Intervention team, composed of voluntary participants from APPD, has responded to situations where significant family violence was reported. The team’s goal is to advocate and facilitate relief for victims. The team is comprised of both police and non-policing staff within the City. Additionally, the City works closely with the Purple Door (family violence support organization in the Coastal Bend). We provide daily reports of family violence-related situations to our Purple Door advocate, who works early to intercede and help victims. That help can be combined to rebuild a healthy relationship or to provide the victim with relief services to get out of dangerous, violent relationships.  

• 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men experience intimate partner violence.  
• 1 in 10 women have been raped by their intimate partner.  
• 1 in 7 women and 1 in 25 men have been physically injured by their partner.  
• 1 in 7 women and 1 in 18 men have been stalked by an intimate partner throughout their lifetime. 
• On a typical day, around 20 thousand family violence calls get reported to hotlines.  
• Intimate partner violence equates to around 15% of all reported violent crimes.  
• 20% of those killed in intimate partner violence were a family or household member, and Aransas Pass isn’t a stranger to this type of violence.  
• 72% of murder-suicides involved family violence, and the majority, 94%, were women victims.  

The numbers are staggering and go on. To see a complete list of this information and statistical data, visit the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.  

Our goal remains to partner with our community to bring awareness to these situations and work toward initiating change. Together, we can curve these statistics and help one another, whether struggling with cancer or confined in a problematic, violent relationship.

If you or someone you know requires local help for a family violence-related situation, contact the Aransas Pass Police Department at 361-758-5224 or the Purple Door 24/7 Crisis Hotline at 800-580-4878.