Don McCorkell - A Look at the Promise of Police

Note: Since I first posted this, the McCorkell website has been updated. There is now a page on fighting crime in Tulsa (under Issues). There is a sentence about increasing the size of the force. There is mention of creating a dedicated tax source to secure additional funding (tax increase maybe!). The rest of the suggestions pertain to other ideas unrelated to additional officers.

Well, I thought it would be interesting to see how each candidate for mayor
would layout their plan for tackling the crime problem in the city.
Specifically, the problem of the shortage of police on our streets in the city
of Tulsa. I know that TV ads are short, and there is no time for being specific.
So, go to the candidates websites and look at the details, right? Websites let
you expand on issues as much as you like, correct?

Well, after going to Don McCorkell's website, I think that my assumption was wrong.

There are no specifics here beyond what you might hear in an ad,,,

It will also mean that your city government will be doing its real job [if McCorkell is elected]— fixing our streets and focusing on tough issues like making our city a safer and better place to live, to work and to raise our families.

There is also one sentence that states:
...our violent crime rate is twice the national average.

At least that recognizes the problem.

With the lack of any website mention of police numbers and how to put more Cops on the beat, I guess you need to look for statements elsewhere. The quickest thing that I could lay my hands on was a Mayoral Forum at the TU Law School [hat tip to Tulsa Topics]. From that speech, Don's ideas sort of match up with Kathy Taylor (see next post). It is not about numbers of officers, but about the supporting structures, 991 system, the warrant serving process, investigative procedures, etc. All suggestions for behind the scenes streamlining.

When I have had upper management tell me that they recognize that we are going through a tough time, but that we will have to find a way to work smarter not harder, I know that is a coded message that no more resources are going to be available. You just have to push on with what you've got.