Mayor G.T. Bynum's alternative to creating an Office of the Independent Monitor does not include reviews of police use-of-force incidents but instead focuses on improving the city’s community policing practices and community engagement.
The mayor told councilors on Wednesday that he wants to focus on the aspects of his OIM proposal that had broad support and that he remains open to further discussions on a vehicle for use-of-force reviews.
Bynum said after the meeting that he continues to support implementing independent reviews of police use-of-force incidents.
“I still stand by what I (originally) presented to the council. I’m also not opposed to OSBI (Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations) doing that function, as some councilors have suggested,” the mayor said. “But any approach is going to cost money, and that requires five votes on the council, something none of the various ideas thrown out to date enjoys right now.”
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Bynum’s alternative plan includes the following initiatives:
•Engaging an entity to do a participatory study of the city’s existing community policing programs and help develop an update.
•Providing an annual policing report to include use-of-force data and other information that would have been in the Office of the Independent Monitor’s annual review; councilors will have input as to what other data will be collected.
•Formalizing existing community police programs: Citizen Action Groups and Citizen Advisory Board. Among the goals is to ensure that the public is aware of the meetings.
•Implementing recommendations on police use-of-force recommendations to be presented by the University of Cincinnati and the University of Texas-San Antonio on Wednesday.
•Expanding the scope of Community Resource Officers program to focus on areas where distrust of police officers is highest.
Bynum sent an email to city councilors earlier this month asking them to pull his OIM proposal, citing a lack of support from a majority of city councilors and some community activists.
"My team is developing an alternative that I believe will address similar goals through a less decisive vehicle," the mayor wrote.
The proposal would have given the independent monitor three primary responsibilities: to follow up on citizen complaints about police and review Tulsa Police Department Internal Affairs’ investigations of use-of-force incidents; review best practices for police and make policy recommendations; and conduct community outreach.
The mayor said Wednesday that a number of councilors have indicated a desire to explore other police oversight models and to have public discussions of other approaches that could be taken.
“Obviously, I think it’s a very important approach, and I encourage that,” he said.
The issue that motivated him to propose the OIM — a lack of trust by some Tulsans of their Police Department — remains today, Bynum said.
“So if you folks want to take more time to work on the oversight function, that is great,” he said. “But I don’t want us to be stuck in the mud on items two and three.”
When initially unveiling his proposal in January, Bynum noted that the only time there is a public discussion of use-of-force allegations is if the District Attorney’s Office files criminal charges or someone files a civil lawsuit against the city.
“Internal Affairs investigations are conducted confidentially, and citizens don’t have a means of verifying results,” Bynum said. “I think we owe it to the citizens and to the officers to do better.”
The council was divided on how use-of-force incidents should be reviewed, with some councilors seeking to give the OIM more power and others pushing for the OSBI to do the reviews.
City Councilor Vanessa Hall-Harper said after the mayor's presentation that real trust between the police and the public won’t be achieved without independent oversight of the Police Department.
“Without oversight, there is no way we are going to build trust in the community, which, I think everyone agrees, is the goal,” she said.
