The $2.5 million in proposed funding for a Real Time Information Center for the Tulsa Police Department would pay for approximately 25 to 50 video cameras, 18 new employees and the hardware and technology necessary to get the facility up and running, Police Chief Wendell Franklin said.
“It gives us what we need to get going,” Franklin told the Tulsa World during a recent interview. “It allows us an opportunity to try and prove that this will work for Tulsa.”
The cameras will initially be used in high-crime areas, Franklin said, and the hope is to purchase more cameras and expand their use into other areas, including at special events that draw big crowds.
“It’s all going to depend on cost,” Franklin said of TPD’s initial camera purchase.
Mayor G.T. Bynum included the funding in his proposed fiscal year 2023 budget, which would have to be approved by the City Council at least seven days before the end of the current fiscal year on June 30.
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The goal is to have the Information Center operational by next June.
Bynum and Franklin have said they see the cameras as force multipliers that can help keep Tulsans safe during a time when police departments across the country are struggling to retain officers and grow their workforces.
“What we are trying to do is to look at: How can we create a sustained reduction in crime in a specific area?” Franklin said. “We know that we can put officers out there, and we know that when officers are there, crime is reduced because there is a patrol car. People aren’t going to sell drugs or have a shootout with a cop car being right there.
“But when that car leaves, things return to normal. And so the question is: How can we sustain that and keep an area safe without having to be present all of the time? And we think that technology is a great way to do some of that.”
Franklin said the Real Time Information Center will operate out of City Hall because it's unknown how long the Police Department will operate out of the Police Courts Building near Sixth Street and Denver Avenue.
The building has been in poor condition for years, and the city’s Arena District Master Plan envisions removing it and putting a hotel in its place.
“Ideally, we did want it here (at police headquarters),” Franklin said, “but it’s just cost prohibitive to invest millions of dollars into a building that we think may not be here. And so I think it is just trying to do what is best for taxpayer money and not make an initial investment into a building that is falling apart.”
The 18 new employees will be civilians because the Police Department can’t afford to move officers off their current assignments, Franklin said.
Franklin noted that sworn officers eventually will need to have a presence in the Information Center because police cannot act on misdemeanor crimes unless they are witnessed — in person or on real time video — by an officer.
The Police Department held a series of public meetings last month on its plan to install 25 license plate reader cameras in high-crime neighborhoods. The city is participating in a one-year national pilot program to test the effectiveness of the technology, which is being provided by Flock Safety at no cost to the city.
The license plate readers are expected to be installed soon.
After the pilot program is over, the city could choose to purchase license plate readers and incorporate them into the Real Time Information Center, Franklin said, but he stressed that the still image cameras are different from the 25 to 50 video cameras TPD plans to purchase as part of next year's budget.
“It takes a photo of the tag, and it takes a photo of the vehicle,” Franklin said of the Flock cameras. “So we know that it is a red vehicle, and we know that here is the license plate, and the person in the Real Time Information Center verifies that that plate did read accurately and then can dispatch an officer to the area to look for the red vehicle.
“That is totally different from the other cameras. The other cameras are just cameras, PTZ — pan, tilt, zoom. They can run all the time.”
Franklin said he understands that some people don’t like the idea of the government using cameras to monitor residents' actions, but he noted that camera systems are commonly used by police departments across the country as well as by businesses and homeowners.
“There is not a place that you can go when you leave your house that you are not on someone’s camera, whether that is a business or an individual homeowner or someone’s car,” he said. “So this is all out there; this is technology that is out there.”
The cameras will be marked as TPD equipment and in most instances will have lights attached to ensure that the public knows where the cameras are and to whom they belong. Some cameras might not have lights if the light could create problems near an intersection, for example, Franklin said.
In addition, the Police Department — as it did last month for the Flock cameras — will meet with neighborhood residents before cameras are installed.
“The way Las Vegas put it is, they really had a very open process, and that is what we want for us, as well,” he said. “They allow the media to go into their locations, and they’ve shot video in there. We want to do the same thing.”
Bynum and Franklin have indicated previously that they intend to work with organizations such as the ACLU or others to create policies for the Real Time Information Center that protect residents’ privacy and civil liberties.
Franklin said the video camera system the city plans to purchase for the Information Center is designed to ensure that footage cannot be used improperly by those with access to it.
“The software that we are looking at to run these systems, they have auditing software in them so you can’t do something and not leave a trail,” he said.
The videos themselves, Franklin said, will be stored for no more than 14 days.
