People arrested on municipal charges like driving on a suspended license or shoplifting will now be booked into the City of Tulsa Jail.
Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan said being able to take people arrested on city charges there instead of to the county jail should cut the booking process from 90 minutes to 30.
"We don’t have enough men and women in our police department to do the job we want to do," Jordan said. "Getting them in and out of a jail facility quicker when they have to put somebody in jail … just the time savings alone should be huge for our department."
The city jail can hold people on city charges or a mix of city and state charges up to 10 days. Prisoners with only state charges or warrants will still go to the David L. Moss Criminal Justice Center.
Municipal Courts Director Kelly Brader said it will make the court process more efficient, likely saving that department some money.
"We’re going to be able to see people faster, get them out of jail faster," Brader said. "Instead of us having to notify a transportation team at 2 o’clock in the morning that we need people brought down, it will just be a matter of hours."
The city jail has room for up to 25 male and five female prisoners. Additional inmates or those sentenced to more than 10 days in jail will be sent to Okmulgee.
Jail staff includes 25 detention officers, but they are not TPD officers.
"We assisted in the background checks and some of the training, but they’re actually working for G4S, contracted to the city," Jordan said.
The city has not confirmed how much it will cost to run the jail. The initial estimate was $1.2 million dollars a year, but the contract with G4S could run as much as $1.8 million.
Continuing to use the county jail for municipal inmates would have run about $1.4 million.
