In a rare occurrence, dozens of Tulsa residents weighed in on the proposed city budget in a public hearing, most of them asking officials to defund the police department.
A few phone messages were played during the council's virtual meeting, but most comments came via email. City council staff read each one into the record, a process that took more than an hour, and after weeks of protests over racial disparities in policing, the overwhelming theme was taking money from the police department budget and reallocating it to services like housing assistance, mental health and addiction treatment.
The city has budgeted nearly $123 million for the Tulsa Police Department next fiscal year, a roughly 4% decrease from this year amid a projected $13 million decline in general fund revenues.