Former Mayor Wonders If Tulsa Needs a Police Review Board Now

Tulsa City Councilors meet today to discuss, and possibly vote on, an issue that’s been brought up several times in the past: The establishment of an official police or public safety review office.
Last week, Councilors Vanessa Hall-Harper and Lori Decter Wright proposed establishing an 'Office of Independent Review and Oversight of Public Safety' and an 11-member 'Civilian Oversight Board.'
Former Mayor G-T Bynum tried, during his first term, to set up something similar. He called it the Office of Independent Monitor. But it failed when councilor Hall-Harper withdrew her support. Then Hall-Harper offered her own plan. However, says Bynum, by that time, the city had a new police chief, Wendell Franklin, and Hall-Harper, as Bynum puts it, "was proposing things that Chief Franklin was already doing." He says, "Chief Franklin put in many of the initiatives that I was proposing for an independent monitor, including independent review by the DA of any use of force.”
And, the former Mayor points out, the District Attorney is elected. Members of a police review board would be appointed. Bynum believes that makes the current system established by the former chief, more accountable to voters. "So you have, in essence, through the district attorney’s office, this independently elected review process through the DA. And we felt like that is sufficient for accomplishing what I was hoping to do through the Office of the Independent Monitor.”
Current Mayor Monroe Nichols’ office says the Mayor was waiting until hearing more about the proposal before he decides whether he supports it. Council could vote on the measure this evening.