Leaders of Tulsa's police and fire departments talked to the city's public safety task force Tuesday about how a proposed four-tenths of a cent tax would help them help Tulsans.
Tulsa Police would likely divide the city into smaller beats if more officers are hired. Police union president and TPD Sgt. Clay Ballenger said they want to get away from the sense officers only show up when there’s an emergency.
"Getting to know the kids, the elderly, everybody that lives in that officer's beat," Ballenger said. "If it happens to be a business district, obviously getting to know the business owners, having that relationship to where — I mean, we'd like to get to the point where a business owner can pick up the phone and have a cell phone number for the officer that works their beat."
A proposed four-tenths of a cent public safety tax could add 38 detectives to TPD's ranks. Ballenger said several divisions are two or three detectives short.
"You might think that if you make a police report, it will be investigated. Right now, because of [staffing], that's not the case. We have to prioritize," Ballenger said. "If your car was broken into and there's no evidence or suspect information, that case is probably not going to be investigated."
During discussions about a two-tenths of a cent sales tax, more detectives had not specifically been mentioned.
Ballenger said four-tenths of a cent dedicated to public safety would help pay for 66 patrol officers and eight traffic officers. Citizens would see a difference when it comes to Operation Slick Streets.
"If we had this many more patrol officers and traffic officers, we could continue to respond to crashes — even in inclement weather — longer, before we get to that point where we have to go with Slick Streets," Ballenger said. "I think that's important to the citizens, because as a supervisor, I get a lot of complaints about, 'Why aren't you coming to my collision?'"
Tulsa Fire Department heads say four-tenths of a cent for public safety would mean 112 more firefighters.
"One-hundred eight of those would go directly to our field operations, or basically, to direct service to the citizens. Four of those would go to administration," said Deputy Chief Andy Teeter. "That means there'd be 36 personnel per each of the three shifts going out directly to the field."
Teeter told the city’s public safety task force that would make it a lot easier to increase staffing to four per truck. Right now, three are responding to fires.
"We're supposed to have four there before we initiate an interior attack, with the idea that two members would be outside in case there's an emergency and they need to rescue the two members that went inside to fight the fire," Teeter said.
Tulsa firefighters’ union president Capt. Chad Miller said a federal study tested crews of various sizes and found four firefighters complete a list of critical tasks much faster than three.
"While all of these tests and exercises are being conducted, the firefighters are wearing monitoring gear that monitor their health, their heart rate, their blood pressure," Miller said. "And not only can they perform those tasks more efficiently, but they perform it at a lower level of exertion than a crew size with smaller numbers."
The study also found four-person crews experience half the number injuries of three-person crews.
There are proposals of two-tenths of a cent and four-tenths of a cent before city councilors now. It seems likely a public vote will be delayed until next year, however.
