TAMPA, Fla. — There is a new community resource available through the Tampa Police Department. The department hired a victim advocate in the summer of 2023 to fill a gap where officers noticed additional resources for victims of crime could be useful.
Fatalities and violent crime decreased last year while dispatched calls for service increased 4.2 percent, according to the department's 2023 crime report. Yet there was still a need for better accessibility to victim resources, victim advocate Sharlene Santana said.
"Meeting people in their darkest moments, their darkest days, helping them to navigate their trauma, linking them up with resources, that's very critical work," Santana said.
Santana's job is to link victims with resources like counseling, safe places to stay, and help them get through the criminal investigation process. She offers support for many victims with little to no experience with the criminal justice system.
"It can be making a phone call...following up with our victims in the aftermath, seeing if there's anything that I can do to support them," Santana said. "A lot of times they're inundated with a lot of people that may be calling them and contacting them, it can be a detective or different victim advocates. And so my job is to help them and let them know who's who."
Now, when someone's life turns upside down, Santana is there to offer her support.
"It's just a matter of calming them down, validating their feelings, letting them know that this is a common reaction to trauma, and linking them up with resources in the community to help them cope," Santana said.
TPD said it works closely with organizations like The Spring of Tampa Bay, the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay, and The LIFE Center of the Suncoast.
Malique Rankin is a general assignment reporter with 10 Tampa Bay. You can email her story ideas at mrankin@10tampabay.com and follow her Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages.
