TULSA, Okla. — The City of Tulsa implemented a downtown curfew in July.
Leaders from TPD, city council, and the Downtown Tulsa Partnership, met Sept. 17 to discuss the results.
WATCH: CURFEW UPDATE: Police, council, discuss downtown Tulsa curfew impacts
“Business owners, within the Blue Dome District area, generally … we’re not speaking on behalf of every person or saying that everyone agrees with it … but generally have been supportive of it,” Brian Kurtz, CEO of Downtown Tulsa Partnership said.
The curfew prevents Tulsans under the age of 18 from loitering downtown, without a parent, between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. Thursdays through Sunday.
Deputy Chief Mark Wollmerhauser says TPD has written just eight tickets since the curfew took effect.
“All those curfew citations were 1 in the morning, 1:30, 2 o’clock, one was a 13-year-old, a couple of them had prior gun arrests, and it’s equally concerning to me that the social determinants of health are failing these kids,” Deputy Chief Wollmerhaus said.
For the most part, officers are just having conversations, telling people to leave; nothing formal.
2 News Oklahoma listened to Sarah and Thomas Hathaway, enjoying time spent downtown.
“So far, here in Tulsa, we’ve been feeling very safe and it feels like a very welcoming community, we’ve been seeing the … safety people that walk around here now. They’ve been coming up to us saying how are we and stuff, so we’ve been feeling really nice about it.”
As things stand, the curfew will expire Oct. 22, however, all signs point to the council extending it until October 2026.
“I would just propose …. extending this, but keeping the sunset on it for a year, just so we have another pause-point to come back and look at data, again and make sure that we’re all back at this table being thoughtful about this,” Councilor Laura Bellis said.
The council discussed possible tweaks, including pushing the curfew to 10 p.m., but Wollmerhauser advised against such a move.
“9 o’clock, gives us good amount of time, to continue to do educational pieces to people who are showing up. The later it gets implemented. The more we have to immediately start to enforce, so that we can correct that behavior,” Wollmerhauser said.
Thursdays, however, might be eliminated from the plans. As Wollmerhauser puts it – even with the limited incidents, “Thursday’s just not a thing.”
The council will consider an extension to the curfew during its Oct. 8 meeting.
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