Tulsa needs to put in work to improve equal justice, report shows
TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) — When it comes to justice equality, Tulsa still has a long way to go.
The Mayor’s Office of Resilience and Equity and the Community Service Council released the fifth annual Tulsa Equality Indicators reportthis week.
Justice is the only one ofsix themesto have a decrease from the 2018 baseline.
"We do see these downward trends in the results, which suggests the the interactions with the community are becoming slightly less equitable over time," said Dr. David McLeod, a former police detective who now teaches at the University of Oklahoma.
He says this report is a tool the Tulsa Police Department can use to improve.
"Police departments really need to invest the time and energy and resources into understanding exactly when and where these disparities are happening, so that they can make sure that it's not a construct or not, there's not a reason that's bubbling up from inside the police department," explained McLeod.
He said the data shouldn't be taken at face value.
For example, the report indicates Black Tulsans are 4 1/2 times more likely to be victims of homicide than white Tulsans.
"People might suggest that the Black community kills itself more, there's more violence in there," said McLeod. "I would be very cautious to ascribe that kind of meaning to a statistic like that. However, we know that things like homicide rates are also predictors of all kinds of lack of access, increased fear, increased stress in so we would look at that from a community perspective."
Another point highlighted in the report is about domestic violence calls by geography.
According to the data, domestic violence calls to 911 are over 2 1/2 times as frequent in north Tulsa than in south Tulsa.
Tracey Lyall, the CEO of Domestic Violence Intervention Services pointed out that data can be misleading.
"To me, it does not indicate that domestic violence is happening less frequently in South Tulsa, because we know it happens all over the our city," she said. "It's really an indication of people calling for help that have no, may have no other resources."
One of the most jarring indicators in the report is child abuse and neglect rate in Tulsa County, which the report notes is nearly twice the national average.
NewsChannel 8 asked Maura Guten, president and CEO of the Child Abuse Network, what the underlying causes are for the disparity.
"Really, some of the chronic generational and societal issues impact kids and families at a different rate than Oklahoma. It seems like exposure to intimate partner violence or domestic violence in the home is quite prevalent," said Guten.
NewsChannel 8 reached out to the Tulsa Police Department to see how they plan to use the data to impact their policing, but did not hear back in time for this story.