Numbers now, 03/2013, v.3 no.1

              Numbers Now……
Criminal Justice in Oklahoma
March 2013 (Vol. 3, No. 1)
Published By
Oklahoma State Bureau of
Investigation
Stan Florence
Director
Charles Curtis
Deputy Director
Dave Page
Division Director
Information Services
Christopher Hill, Ph.D.
Assistant Division Director
Information Services
Angie Baker
SAC Director
Open
Statistical Research Specialist
Jennifer Powell
Liaison
OK Violent Death Reporting
System
In this issue:
National Youth Violence Prevention Month
Oklahoma State-Tribal Liaison Program
The Oklahoma District Attorneys Council, Victims Services Division is now well into the
second year of a unique grant that funds a State-Tribal Crime Victim Liaison. Brian
Hendrix began work as the liaison in October 2011. Funded by the Office for Victims of
Crime (OVC), the program is the only one of its type in the nation. Program efforts are
dedicated to improving communication among tribal, state, federal, and local officials to
enhance victim assistance and outreach services to tribal communities in Oklahoma. The
primary purpose of the project is to enhance victims’ compensation and assistance
outreach to Oklahoma’s 38 federally recognized tribes.
Over the last 18 months, Mr. Hendrix has been in the field contacting victim advocates,
court personnel, and law enforcement representatives for each tribe. In addition, he met
with victim witness coordinators in each of the twenty-seven district attorneys’ offices.
Consequently, by the middle of last year he began bringing representatives from tribal
victims’ service programs and state victims’ services personnel together in a series of
continuing State-Tribal Victims Services Roundtable Discussions. The idea behind these
meetings is to provide an informal forum in which tribal victims’ services providers and
victim witness coordinators/victim witness assistants can meet, talk about respective
services offered, and discuss any gaps in delivery of resources/support to victims.
A partnership between the District Attorneys Council and the Oklahoma State Bureau of
Investigation was created for the purpose of evaluating the impact of the project. The field
presence of Angie Baker, project evaluator, brings additional benefits to many of the tribal
communities in the form of a violent crime data resource. Ms. Baker now routinely
distributes violent crime reports specific to tribal service boundaries to those who attend
roundtable discussions.
Brian came to the District Attorneys Council with a great deal of experience in working with
Oklahoma tribes and federal grants. He previously served as the Executive Director for the
Payne County Drug Court Program. During his tenure at the Payne County Drug Court,
Hendrix served as a faculty member for the National Association of Drug Court
Professionals Tribal Training Initiative and the Native American Alliance Foundation. Prior
to his work in Payne County, Mr. Hendrix coordinated children’s protective services first as
a Child Protection Worker and then as the Indian Child Welfare Coordinator for Muscogee
Creek Nation.