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City Receives Additional Funding to Reduce Violent Crime around 61st and Peoria

The City of Tulsa gets funding to help neighborhoods around 61st and Peoria.

A $503,000 grant will pay for implementation of a strategic plan developed for the area in 2014. Gerri Inman is in charge of social services group South Tulsa Community House. She said she’s spoken to many business owners, apartment managers and residents about challenges they face.

"This is their home. They're not looking to move, they're looking to help find a solution and to make the area safer and to have even better access to social and other services," Inman said.

The Byrne Innovation Program grant will help pay for overtime for police to patrol crime hotspots and increased social services, specifically for people affected by domestic violence. Most of the grant will support for two years one full-time police officer based in the community, who will be expected to cultivate relationships.

"This grant is just a small example of big things that can happen when we collaborate and work with each other," said Tulsa Deputy Police Chief Jonathan Brooks. "So, when they start getting in the community and working every day — and that's all he does. He won't get drug away by another 911 call. He's going to stay here and he's going to work on that, and I think great things are going to happen."

Mayor Dewey Bartlett said that sort of collaboration is key.

"This community is vibrant, is alive, is well and is waiting to be recognized as being a community of tremendous recovery," Bartlett said.

In 2014, the city received a $100,000 Byrne grant to develop a plan for reducing violent crime in the area.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.