Police statistics show crime isn’t a big problem in downtown Tulsa.
There have been 25,000–30,000 part one crimes in Tulsa each year since 2009. Those are murders, robberies, rapes, assaults, burglaries, larcenies and auto thefts. Only 500—600 have been downtown, two-thirds of them larcenies.
Community Education Officer Demita Kinard with the Tulsa Police Department said there’s one big reason for that.
"Well, we see more larceny crimes in downtown Tulsa because we have the big Home Depot," Kinard said. "We've seen a lot of larcenies coming out of Home Depot."
There have been no murders in downtown Tulsa the last three years.
The crime statistics the department presented today in a community safety seminar show only about 2 percent of crime city wide happens within the inner dispersal loop. Kinard said TPD still needs citizens’ help, though.
"We can only go by the numbers of what's been reported. That's why we encourage people also when we do this to report anything that's going on," Kinard said. "So we're hoping that our community partners here — if there's something that hasn't been addressed, something that hasn't been reported — that this will help bring it out so we'll know."
Kinard said aggressive beggars and dangerous, mentally ill people also aren’t the problems many people fear they are.
