Tulsa city officials are learning about public inebriation centers: places people who may have passed out in public from drugs or alcohol without committing a crime.
Mental Health Association Oklahoma CEO Mike Brose said police officers can drop them off there rather than spend a couple hours booking them into jail.
"The average length of time that police officers or law enforcement are in and out of there is somewhere in the range of 10 to 30 minutes," Brose said. "So, they're back in duty, doing what we want them to do, [which] is fight crime."
People dropped off would sleep it off and be offered a small meal the next day. They would be connected with treatment options, too. They would not end up with a criminal charge, but they can't just decide they don't want to stay.
"They have to stay there for a length of time," Brose said. "They have to, and if they refuse to do so, they're going to call the police and have them take them to jail."
Brose wants to partner with treatment center 12 and 12 for the center. It's near 41st Street and Sheridan Road. City Councilor Blake Ewing thinks that’s out of the way.
"I understand that there's an existing facility, but it would just make sense to me that, that was conveniently located close to the core of the city," Ewing said. "And downtown is really one of the few parts of the city where you can locate a facility like that and not upset nearby residential neighbors and things like that."
City councilors will visit a public inebriation center in Oklahoma City soon. It’s been open 25 years.
