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Reported by:
Melissa Hawkes
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| Updated: 1/15 11:05 am |
Published: 1/15 11:00 am
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A new group is working to improve communications between the public and the police force after last week's quadruple murder in South Tulsa. The group is created by Tulsa City Councilor G.T. Bynum and will try and improve the way the city collects important information about crimes from the public.
The group is made up of city leaders, law enforcement, and even social media experts. They will share ideas about what can be done to make reporting anonymous crime tips easier, especially in the 61st & Peoria area.
"The problems at 61st & Peoria have culminated over 4 decades of bad land use, planning and other decisions that have been made,” Bynum said. “This task force won't solve all the problems there, but I think it will help."
He thinks last week's quadruple murder at the Fairmont Terrace Apartments may have shocked the community enough to be a catalyst for change. It motivated him to form the "Public Safety Intelligence Working Group".
"It's a sincere effort to really pull together a diverse group of people throughout our community and the end goal is to empower Tulsans to help make their community safer,” he said.
The first step is evaluating things like Tulsa Police Department’s Crime Stoppers and other programs already in place. Then figuring out a way to expand those programs and motivate more people to report crimes to police.
Bynum said, “Crimes will happen and no one will talk about it, even though they know who did it and that's a serious problem."
The group will meet for one month to come up with a plan of attack and then will make recommendations to the city council and mayor about what changes need to happen.
