Tulsa police hold community meeting to discuss potential for new downtown department | News

TULSA, Okla. – The Tulsa Police Department (TPD) is exploring the potential of a new police department in downtown Tulsa.

A meeting to gather community input was held Wednesday evening at the Central Library in downtown Tulsa.

“We can’t do our job without them, we want them involved, we want input from the community so we know exactly what they want from the department. “This is very special for the police department, we haven’t had a new department in many, many years, and it’s wonderful that the community can actually have their input and say what they want from this department,” says TPD- Maj. Jillian Phippen said.

Police said the idea for a new department came from their desire to improve public safety in downtown Tulsa as the area grows.

Phippen said with a department in downtown Tulsa, they would be able to better engage with the community and possibly even achieve faster response times.

Currently, only the potential of the division is being discussed, which also includes questions about staffing.

“We did a staffing study to see how many officers it would take. So right now we don’t really know if we have the numbers, but that’s why we’re doing this, that’s why we’re reviewing the study. That’s why we’re having the meetings to see if this is even feasible for us,” Phippen said.

They are also considering how the department should be funded.

Phippen said anyone with questions can email her at [email protected].