A plan to open an external police liaison office this year has been delayed as city officials look to expand the concept to include multiple municipal departments, Mayor G.T. Bynum said.
The idea to include other departments came from city councilors he had consulted on the original concept, Bynum said.
“The council has made a recommendation to look at this from a broader standpoint, and so we are actually going through that right now,” he said. “I hope to have it resolved by the end of the year.
“When it took on a larger focus of looking at how we improve customer service interaction for all city departments, it has taken a little bit more time and a little bit more work.”
Bynum said in July that the liaison program was not intended to serve the same role as the police oversight programs that have been proposed the past several years, nor would it satisfy those who have called for the creation of a citizens review board with authority to discipline officers.
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“There is not a consensus on the council — and definitely not with me — to do that,” he said of the review boards. “And so, for many of us, we think it will help, but it will not end the calls for a citizens review board.”
The idea behind establishing an external police liaison office is to provide a space outside the Police Department where members of the public would feel comfortable going and speaking with someone who is not in uniform about their concerns or to file a complaint, Bynum said in July.
Police Chief Wendell Franklin has said previously he was receptive to the idea and believed that “any avenue to streamline a process or create a tangible solution to communicate more effectively across a wide array of the population is great.”
Bynum said it was in discussions with councilors about the external police liaison office that a consensus emerged early about the program’s having a wider scope.
“You have 311 (the office people can call by dialing 311 or contact online at tulsa311.com to report city issues and interact with city of Tulsa customer care staff), and then you’ve got calling my office or the City Council, and there is this gap in between,” Bynum said. “What does filling that look like? So that is what we are working through right now.”
City Council Chairwoman Crista Patrick was among the councilors who advocated for expanding the scope of the liaison office. She said most of the calls she receives from constituents are about utility payments, road projects and interruptions in services.
“And the city doesn’t have a whole lot of access except through 311, and you end up sitting on the phone for 18 hours, and then you get cut off at 5 o’clock with the water company, and it is very, very frustrating for citizens,” Patrick said.
“So, in my opinion, it is a really important service to provide access after hours, in person, so that you can talk to a person about the crises you are having with the city in its entirety, not just the city Police Department, but about all of your problems with the city.”
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