Correction: A Sunday Tulsa World column incorrectly reported the last name of one of the men convicted of the Good Friday shootings. Alvin Watts pleaded guilty in the shootings that left three people dead.
On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most positive value, how safe/secure do you feel in Tulsa, and why?
Sixteen representatives from all corners of Tulsa one by one addressed facilitator Hannibal Johnson’s question. Nearly the last to speak, Tusa Police Chief Chuck Jordan gave an answer as loaded as the gun in his holster. At a five, Jordan felt less safer than anyone else. Most of those present in the City Hall conference room last week rated their safety at an eight or above.
Jordan went on, however, to qualify his response. “I have two answers. As a citizen, I’d probably answer a nine or a 10.” Yet, as a police officer, who’s worn the TPD uniform for 45 years, he admitted to feeling only half as secure, largely because of what’s transpiring nationally.
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Citizen distrust of police has escalated, fueled by police shootings and two incendiary grand jury actions. On Dec. 3, Staten Island, N.Y., grand jurors voted not to indict a white police officer in the choking death of Eric Garner, a black father of six. The decision triggered the I-Can’t-Breathe protests in 170 cities. On Nov. 24, Ferguson, Missouri, erupted following a grand jury decision not to indict white police officer Darren Wilson in the August shooting death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teen.
Tulsa, along with most cities, is only one incident away from a Ferguson. Jordan knows that, and so do the 34 members of the Mayor’s Police & Community Coalition, a cross-section of Tulsans selected to build community-police relations. The coalition reflects the perspectives of African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, European Americans, Asian Americans, the LGBT community, men and women, people with disabilities, Muslims, Jews, Christians and others. The mayor, police chief, select Tulsa police officers and interested city councilors complete the group.
Checkered history
Tulsa has a painful history of racial issues, including the 1921 race riot, a 16-year lawsuit by black police officers against their own department, a federal investigation into TPD for an alleged pattern and practice of civil rights violations, and more recent events such as the 2012 Good Friday shootings.
The coalition was formed in 2008 and is there — to put it in present-day terms — to Ferguson-proof Tulsa by building trust.
“The reality or perception of discriminatory law enforcement, such as bias-based profiling and the use of excessive force, can destabilize communities,” Johnson said in describing the coalition.
Does the effort make a difference? Its members think that it may in obvious and behind-the scene ways. Johnson provides examples: First, after discussing the merits of video cameras in the police department’s marked fleet, the brand-new coalition presented a resolution supporting those cameras to the Tulsa City Council in 2008. The council ultimately funded the cameras, part of a court settlement. (Unfortunately, there have been issues with the cost and timeliness of getting working cameras into police vehicles).
The power of community engagement also became evident in 2012 after the Good Friday shootings in which Jake England, and Alvin Watts, both white, killed three African Americans in north Tulsa and wounded two others. The community could have gone the way of Ferguson but it did not.
Silver-lining moments
“The horrific Good Friday shootings rallied the community,” Johnson said, “bringing together TPD and Tulsa’s African-American community, if only temporarily, as a unified front. It is such silver-lining moments that (the coalition) seeks to replicate and normalize.”
Last week, the group talked frankly about body cameras for police. Jordan supports them and also wants Tasers, which are less deadly than a gun in defusing some situations. That’s important in a department that is spread too thin — 21 years ago, TPD had 766 officers; today it has 755.
“Body cameras are a valuable tool. They’re important for transparency. You’re going to find some misconduct. Historically, behavior improves with them present. We’re all better people with a camera on us. Body cameras won’t be a panacea but anything that enhances trust of the community is worthwhile,” Jordan said.
The Ferguson episode might have turned out differently had Darren Wilson been wearing a body camera. When someone wrestles with an officer for a gun, he doesn’t do it “because he wants to pawn it,” Jordan said. “No one wants to listen to evidence these days.”
He hopes that private police foundations might fund Tasers and body cameras.
Coalition members asked a lot of questions and expect to have more conversations about adding the equipment as well as other efforts to enhance trust between Tulsans and the police.
Does it, and will it, help bridge divides and cure distrust?
Johnson says the answer works on the principle of reciprocity.
“It is not just that community members develop an enhanced sense of what the police do and why. The police, come to understand the community better, too. That reciprocity lays the foundation for the trust upon which effective law enforcement depends.”
