City Of Oklahoma City: Preliminary Recommendations On Community Policing, Law Enforcement Policy Presented This Week In Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City OK

10 August, 2021

4:31 PM

Description

Press release from the City of Oklahoma City: 08/10/2021 9:01 AM Preliminary recommendations on the future of community policing and law enforcement policy are being presented to volunteer panels this week in Oklahoma City, the next step before City Council consideration later this year.          The preliminary report is the product of more than a year of background work with dozens of community groups and hundreds of local leaders. Service professionals, lawmakers, activists, organizers, religious leaders, mental health experts, advocates for people experiencing homelessness and others participated in interviews, listening sessions, virtual meetings and more. The Law Enforcement Policy Task Force and Community Policing Working Group, among others, will receive the preliminary recommendations at meetings beginning Tuesday. Their feedback will be considered for a final report, which will be delivered to the City Council. The final report may have recommendations that have been added, removed or changed based on feedback, new challenges and other factors. The City Manager and Police Department will be responsible for implementing adopted recommendations. The preliminary recommendations are available here on okc.gov. The Community Policing Working Group is scheduled to receive and discuss the report at its meeting Tuesday. The Law Enforcement Policy Task Force will receive and discuss it at 1:30 p.m. Thursday in a virtual meeting here on Zoom. A recording of the meeting will be posted later to the City's YouTube channel at youtube.com/cityofokc. Recommendations 21CP Solutions, a consultant, prepared a 33-page report with preliminary recommendations developed with the working group, task force and other stakeholders, including the Mayor's Task Force on Homelessness and Code-4 Counseling. The report has eight broad recommendations. Each one is accompanied by its own specific recommendations for implementing it in Oklahoma City. 1. Change the Police Department's de-escalation procedures 2. Provide independent law enforcement accountability to the community 3. Improve crisis response training for police 4. Provide alternative response to mental health calls 5. Focus on law enforcement youth outreach 6. Create a neighborhood safety/violence interruption program 7. Improve police officer access to mental health services 8. Expand law enforcement homelessness outreach The full report is available here on okc.gov. Timeline The task force and working group will spend the rest of the summer and early fall on feedback for the preliminary report. 21CP is scheduled to deliver a final report in the fall, which will mark the conclusion of the work for the task force and working group. The final report will then be presented to the City Council, likely in late fall or winter, with further context from community voices. The City Council will consider the recommendations in the final report for possible adoption. The preliminary report incorporates extensive public outreach and feedback collected for more than a year, including in an April virtual town hall meeting. A more comprehensive list of groups participating in the process is in the report. Further opportunities for feedback will come during comment periods at City Council meetings with the report on the agenda. The City Manager and Police Department may be in position to implement some of the recommendations quickly. Others are likely to have operational, budgetary, labor and legal issues to navigate, which will take time. # # # Media Contact Kristy Yager (405) 297-2550 [email protected] This press release was produced by the City of Oklahoma City. The views expressed here are the author's own.