Ok, I hate to burst all the rhetoric, but, I did some digging, and some of what is being tossed around about crime and police staffing for Tulsa is not really supported by the facts, some is.
Tulsa has 249 police employees per 100,000 people and 191 officers per 100,000 people, that is compared to 260 employees and 194 officers in OKC.
Tulsa, for similar sized cities (350,000 to 499,000), ranks 12th of 17 cites in the number of employees and 7th in the number of officers per 100,000 people, not really very far out of line.
Tulsa had 1,122 violent crimes per 100,000 people in 2000, down from 1,334 in 1990, a big drop. OKC had 781 down from 1,082, also a big drop and a lot better.
Tulsa, for similar sized cities (350,000 to 499,000), ranks 8th of 17 cites in the number of violent crimes per 100,000 people. Again, we should do better, but hardly a hotbed of crime.
Tulsa does much better on property crimes (could it be that we have a gang problem instead of a crime problem?) with 5,710 property crimes per 100,000 people, down from 8,201 in 1990 and much better than OKC with 8,672, which was down from 9,529 in 1990.
Tulsa, for similar sized cities (350,000 to 499,000), ranks 12th of 17 cites in the number of property crimes per 100,000 people. Really, pretty good.
So maybe we do need a few more officers and they need to be focused on violent crime, but it’s not really like the city is without police and is strife with crime.
Here’s why the police are angry with the Mayor. Tulsa spends only $161 per resident on Police compared to $185 in OKC. Tulsa spends only $77,361 per officer compared to OKC’s $92,413.
Tulsa, for similar sized cities (350,000 to 499,000), ranks 13th of 17 cites in amount of money per resident spent on police and 16th of 17 in the amount per officer. This is pretty far out of line.
So, what maybe we need 100 more officers and maybe we don’t, but Tulsa should spend more per officer. Another $30-$40 per person per year would do it. Maybe more than a crime problem, we have a disgruntled police force.
Details at:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/pdlc00.pdf