Tulsa police’s upcoming real-time information center is the product of a partnership with a federal Department of Justice program.
The $2.55 million center will use new and existing surveillance throughout the city to more precisely and efficiently respond to crimes, police say.
Police Chief Wendell Franklin confirmed at a Monday news conference that the concept for TPD’s center was formulated through the Department of Justice’s Public Safety Partnership (PSP) program. The center won’t be paid for with federal money, but will rather allow TPD to receive feedback from the feds about best practices for the center and observe how other police departments throughout the country have executed similar programs, he said.
At the 2022 National Public Safety Partnership Violent Crime Reduction Summit Monday at the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Tulsa, Mayor G.T. Bynum said the center is the biggest change at TPD since radios were installed in patrol vehicles.
“It is using existing surveillance cameras, new surveillance cameras. It is looking at license plate readers. It is going into the 911 calls once they come into the 911 center. It’s trying to create the best picture for their officers before they get to the scene of a public crime,” he said at the news conference, held at the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Tulsa during the 2022 National Public Safety Partnership Violent Crime Reduction Summit.
Franklin argued officers currently don’t always know what kind of call response is needed until they arrive on scene. He said the data collected from the center would allow them to more accurately respond to crimes.
Amy Solomon, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs, claimed during the summit’s opening remarks that PSP programs have led to lower crime rates at member law enforcement agencies throughout the country. A news release given to Public Radio Tulsa from the Office of Justice Programs argued TPD’s use of license plate readers — a program the department adopted through PSP — helped them recover 28 stolen vehicles and six guns and make 20 felony arrests in their first two months using the program.
“The purpose of PSP is to allow us to learn from each other,” said Bureau of Justice Assistance director Karhlton Moore.
Bynum said city officials observed Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s real-time information center before their own was proposed to council.
Council voted 8-1 to build the center, with District 1 councilor Vanessa Harper Hall voting against. Harper-Hall said she didn’t vote for the center because there are better ways to address social ills than through this technology upgrade.
Around the time of the vote, some residents voiced concerns about how TPD could use the center to violate their civil rights.
When asked Monday for a response to these concerns, Franklin said real-time information centers “are deployed in most of the major cities across the United States” and claimed none of them have negatively impacted a person’s civil rights or privacy.
“We’re very cognizant of that, and want to work with everyone to ensure, to let everyone know, that we are not leveraging any kind of technology that’s going to be used to follow them or surveil them, other than what’s out there in the public already,” Franklin said.
