A plan to create an Office of the Independent Monitor, a police oversight committee, is back to square one.
"We were very surprised by that, we didn’t see this coming. We didn’t expect this," says Jerad Lindsey, Chairman of the FOP.
Jerad Lindsay is the chairman of the Fraternal Order of Police in Tulsa, he says he was surprised to learn the effort had been shelved but says he’s hoping for a positive outcome moving forward.
“We’ve had these equality indicator studies and what you don’t hear out of them is stuff like, we’re half the national average of uses of force, we’re half the national average of officer-involved shootings for a Dept our size and a city our size. “ says Lindsey.
Lindsey tells 2 works for you, “We welcome oversight. We just want something that truly is independent, we want something that can’t be swayed by the police officers and something that's immune from Tulsa’s political processes. “
A statement from Mayor GT Bynum says:
"As I told my Council colleagues at the most recent committee discussion, being deliberate and doing anything in this realm the right way is critical. The proposal submitted to the Council provides for OIM review of Internal Affairs investigations, but it does not allow OIM to interfere with ongoing investigations. Our Legal Department has advised that such interference would be a change in working conditions for our Police officers, and a change in working conditions must be negotiated through the collective bargaining process. I can not support something that violates a contract with our employees."
Lindsey says while he supports oversight, he believes if the community doesn’t trust the department a third party won’t fix the issue.
“If your citizens don’t have trust within your police department and your process you need to fix your process. Don’t bring in a third party for them to build trust in and then leave the trust situation the way it is with your original department.”
The FOP plans to meet with Mayor Bynum sometime next week.
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