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Tulsa Commission on Community Policing Delivers 70 Recommendations

File photo-Tulsa Police

The community policing commission launched after the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by a Tulsa police officer delivered its recommendations Friday.

The Tulsa Commission on Community Policing has 70 recommendations falling under pillars of building trust, crime reduction, officer wellness, policy, technology and training. Many of the recommendations focus on collaboration between police and the community.

City Chief Resilience Officer and commission member DeVon Douglass said it’s important Tulsa Police get that kind of buy-in.

"They are working hard to make sure that community policing is actually real here in Tulsa, and they know that it's not a one-sided deal," Douglass said.

Community policing is a strategy to prevent crime where officers get to know people living in their beats. Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan said TPD doesn’t have a good way to do that right now.

"And a lot of that's got to do with no unassigned time for the officers to go out and do the things we want them to do as far as interacting with the community," Jordan said. "I think if we found anything, that this whole area of trust is going to be based on relationships, and that's what we're going to have to really nurture."

Jordan said some recommendations will have to wait until TPD has the 160 additional officers Vision Tulsa funding will pay for.

Mayor G.T. Bynum said making Tulsa safer isn’t up to just him and the chief of police.

"It is every citizen's responsibility, and I hope that through developing these recommendations, we've given everyday citizens a clear idea of what they can do and ways they can participate in making our communities safer," Bynum said.

Bynum’s Office of Performance Strategy and Innovation will launch an online dashboard in the coming weeks so citizens can track progress on each recommendation.

The 26-member commission's recommendations were due by March 15 — Bynum's 100th day in office.

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.