The Devil Pays a Visit to Zink Park

Via the Brookside Neighborhood Association,

This was the action at the Zink pavillion in February. The BNA states,

...this last weekend the pavilion at Zink Park was vandalized with satanic verse. I reported it to the park system and hopefully it will be taken care of soon before more is added. If you need to reach someone in the Park Department you may wish to contact the following.


Greg Warren: gwarren@ci.tulsa.ok.us
Mayor’s Action Center: mac@ci.tulsa.ok.us
Ross Weller: rweller@ci.tulsa.ok.us

Randi Miller - A Look at the Promise of Police

Well, we are continuing down the list of candidates for mayor, attempting to get a handle on how each stands on the biggest issue facing our town,, increasing crime and an understaffed police force. We are basically looking at stated positions found on their websites.

I have now found the first candidate, Randi Miller, that states a hard number:

By the end of my first four years as your mayor, we will reach the goal of adding at least 200 more police officers.

Well I'll be. A hard number. There's an upfront recognition that crime must be reversed and a decent 'stab' that after four years of dithering were just now hearing about current efforts to put officers on the street. Yea, why now? I guess facing a vote of the people can refocus your priorities.

The promise of an increased force, that are well trained, well paid, and well equipped is the sort of thing that will surely get attention in the upcoming primary.

I keep coming up with the same same question though. Give me the nuts and bolts of how (or where) your going to find the money to carry through. Well, maybe we will get that in the general election.

Tulsa's Chief Of Police Put On Administrative Leave By The Mayor

The Mayor is very angry at Chief Of Police Dave Been

Hmmm, has anything happened recently between the Mayor and the Police Department that might have soured relations? I can't think of anything, unless it was that pesky endorsement of Randi Miller for mayor. Well, that was the FOP not the chief, but I'm sure that wasn't a good day in the mayor's office. The Chief is scheduled to be a featured speaker at a rally this Sunday. Could it be that he might express ideas at odds with the mayor?

Sorry, but it feels like junior grade politics to me.
If there is a nail in the coffin, this might be it.

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.

Taylor for Tulsa - A Look at the Promise of Police

No question about it, Tulsa has problems on many fronts. However, one issue in the upcoming mayorial race that seems to be near the top (if not the key issue) is the problem of crime. Surely, every candidate will be addressing this, and laying out their path for improvement. It certainly may be the deciding issue for me. So with that in mind, I wanted to take a look at each candidates position.

With that, we are off to Kathy Taylor's website. This is a pretty decent website, and not anything that was thrown together overnight (based on my experience). There is a full page on the discussion of crime in the city, and her thoughts on how to make Tulsa safer. After reading the entire page, one thing struck me. There are approximately 2028 words on the page, and in only one sentence was the low number of officers on the street addressed. That sentence was:

"Tulsa needs to bring up its ratio of police to citizens."

Bring it up to what? What is the target? I would suppose ten new officers would mathmatically bring up the police to citizen ratio. Is that sufficient? I would want some clarification.
From that point on, the suggestions from Ms. Taylor focus more on streamlining the daily process like wireless access for laptops used by officers, streamlining paper work, computer aided or automation of Dispatch, Booking, Arraignment and so on. I can tell you from experience in the workforce that there can be an increase in productivity from such things, but I don't think that she is suggesting that we can streamline our way out of current crime problems.

Other suggestions are interesting. One is making sure our streetlights are working. Non working lights should be treated as emergencies. Okay! I'm all for getting this in place. But haven't we had problems paying for the lighting that is working? Tell me about the budget required to get the lights to the point you are talking about. What is the cost of running all of these from dusk till dawn? Another suggestion is a Gang Resistance program that has worked in other cities to help young people resist recruiting. Okay. Probably would prefer that this a function of parents or church organizations rather than government sponsered, but again, what's the cost and where does that money come from.

In fact, the overriding theme is, how are you going to pay for all this? All will be speaking of fighting crime and economic growth. For my vote, I will be looking for the person who can give me the nuts and bolts of how they are going to get to their goal. In normal time, promises might be enough, but with the feeling that Tulsa is at the crossroads, we deserve more.

Forgot my tape, is this sign legal?

Tulsa Topics: How to run a "dirty" campaign - Election Sign Tactics 101

If we are enforcing campaign sign ordinances, I just happened to notice this in a neighborhood that has a lot of McCorkell signs.

I forgot my tape measure but don't think this will pass muster with the requirements being used against Councilor Medlock. So, I guess my city workers will be around this evening to pick this up.

Obviously I could care less about signs that are one foot or twelve feet from the curb line. I'm probably just thinking what most Tulsan's are,,, don't stain this election with actions that don't pass the smell test. Let's just let the voters make the final decision.

And now the Disclaimer: I am not associated with any candidate, have in no way expressed support for anyone running for mayor, and don't have anything against McCorkell. (He might make a great mayor.)