Annual report marks Tulsa Police Department's 2021 highlights, effects of use-of-force policy changes

“I am constantly amazed at the ability of our officers and non-sworn employees to adjust to difficult circumstances and continue providing public safety services at an exceptional level to our city,” Chief Wendell Franklin wrote in a message that prefaced the report, touching on the department’s response to the effects of the city’s ransomware attack and service provided during the Tulsa Race Massacre centennial commemoration.

“I appreciate each of our employees and partners in the community who came together in 2021 to overcome challenges and produce success.”

Available on the department’s website, tulsapolice.org, the 68-page annual report reads much like a yearbook, with milestones and memories, command staff biographies, awards, promotions and retirements, and sections that showcase the work of investigatory and specialty units.

It notes that the department’s fewer than 800 officers responded to more than 275,000 calls last year.

Three pages are dedicated to the activities of the Community Engagement Unit, consolidated under Franklin, which includes community outreach, crime education and prevention, mental health support, and the bike and river patrol unit.

The report includes notable projects unique to 2021, such as Empower, a free self-defense class for Tulsa women and girls launched in partnership with Tulsa Crime Stoppers and the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office, and Afghan Refugee Cultural Orientation, an educational welcome class for refugees put on in partnership with Catholic Charities and Congregation B’nai Emunah.

Data in the report display a sort of first fruits of changes the department has made to its use-of-force policy pursuant to recommendations from a university study.

The study, funded by a grant from the International Association of Chiefs of Police and carried out by the University of Cincinnati and the University of Texas-San Antonio, analyzed 30 months of the department’s use-of-force records between 2016 and 2018. It recommended, among other things, that TPD expand its use-of-force data collection and review the force practices of the K-9 Unit.

Formerly only applicable to actions that caused injury, officers must now document all physical control holds, which are considered lower-level uses of force. Policy defines such holds as an officer’s grabbing or applying bodily pressure to a person to counter active resistance.

Police officials foresaw an artificial increase in use-of-force applications before the policy change went into effect in October 2021, and Matt Kirkland, TPD’s director of policy, planning and quality control, said he expects 2022’s numbers to vary even more.

In 2021, officers reported 724 use-of-force applications. In 2020, officers reported 553, Kirkland said.

Comparing the numbers accurately requires quite a bit of context, Kirkland warned. For instance, 724 applications of force does not mean officers used force on 724 people, he said; an officer’s pepper-spraying and taking a suspect to the ground are two individual reportable applications of force that would be housed in one use-of-force report.

That marks a change in report methodology: reports are now done per civilian rather than per officer, remedying previous issues in which an incident in which multiple officers used force on one individual might yield multiple use-of-force reports rather than one report for the individual documenting each officer’s use of force.

Kirkland said that despite the methodology changes, he attributes the total rise in use-of-force applications to the physical control hold reporting policy change.

In each Internal Affairs section, the use-of-force and complaint/disciplinary figures are given in context of the department’s total calls for service and arrests: 275,923 calls and 11,445 arrests in 2021 and 269,114 calls and 12,034 arrests in 2020.

The data also reflect a move by the department to use police dogs mostly for searching rather than apprehension. From 2021 to 2020, the ratio of K-9 apprehensions with bites — regardless of whether the dogs latched onto flesh or apparel — to biteless apprehensions decreased about 6%, according to the report.

In reviewing the K-9 Unit’s practices and policies beginning in 2018, the department changed officers’ use of police dogs to allow suspects more notice and more opportunity to surrender before being bitten, Kirkland said.

2021’s log of 21 bite apprehensions is a marked decrease from 2017’s 83, he noted.

The department’s greatest challenge in the years to come remains staffing shortages, Kirkland said.

The agency recorded somewhat promising numbers in recruiting and diversity during 2021, with 169 applicants who tested to become officers, 37 more than the prior year, according to the report.

However, it’s how those numbers shake out through the hiring process, academy and field training that counts: In 2021, 57 academy graduates joined TPD’s ranks while 41 officers retired.

Although authorized for 943 sworn officers, the department currently employs 787, a public information officer said Thursday.

The issue is not unique to Tulsa, Kirkland said. Attrition rates across the nation continue to rise as overall interest in pursuing policing as a job diminishes. The Tulsa Police Department is attempting to combat the trend with competitive salaries, inclusive social media campaigns and showcasing the department’s many specialty career paths. 

“We’ve worked hard to tailor our recruiting to capture the interest of potential candidates that maybe we were missing before,” Kirkland said.

Interested applicants can learn more at jointpd.com. The city is currently offering a $3,000 signing bonus.

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