City leaders announce plan to help Tulsa police better serve community

TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) -- City leaders and police sat down today to brainstorm new ideas on how to make Tulsa a safer place to live.

It’s all a part of a plan to beef up community policing across the city.

Police will take these recommendations and train the department along with new recruits.

It's a great way to improve community policing that’s unfortunately not always an option.

Policing doesn’t always have to be responding to 911 calls.

Officer Amley Floyd tries to prevent the calls altogether.

“It’s not just about hiding behind a bullet, it’s to protect life, keeping a kid from joining a gang," said Floyd.

Floyd’s goal is community policing.

Getting kids help before they get in trouble.

“Community policing puts us in position to be proactive, save lives, prevent kids from going down the wrong path," said Floyd.

And that’s why today, Tulsa city leaders announced ways to help officers do more of that.

“The definition of community policing is the police and community working together to resolve crime problems," said Chief Chuck Jordan.

TPD Chief Chuck Jordan, Mayor G. T. Bynum and dozens of city leaders announced 77 recommendations to help police better serve the community.

The plan lists six areas of focus, all of which are geared towards reducing crime and offering better transparency between the department and community.

“Moving forward I think we have to be more inclusive of our community on how we address those problems, we’ve got to be more educational to our community," said Jordan.

The recommendations are the result of community input and countless city groups.

All thanks to VisionTulsa, which will also provide TPD more money to hire 160 new officers.

Hopefully with the same passion as Officer Floyd.

“This is why we took the job, we just need more opportunities to do it," said Floyd.

Speaking of opportunities, Floyd says right now most officers have to community police while off duty.

Mayor Bynum will be creating a progress report to track the status of these recommendations.