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Range of speakers gather for second Tulsa equality indicators meeting

Posted at 9:36 PM, Jul 17, 2019
and last updated 2019-07-17 22:36:28-04

A range of speakers from mental health to police gathered for the second Equality Indicators meeting this evening.

Tonight's event focused on racial disparities in police use of force and current practices.

City councilors say the goal is to increase transparency and ultimately use these meetings to make policy changes.

Some speakers say this is overdue, referencing a black police officer coalition lawsuit against Tulsa police in 2001.

"Bias, when reported internally, must be believed," said African Ancestral Society President Chief Egunwale Fagbenro Amusan. "We can't deny that fact. That's a fact. This is not an opinion. It's an actual fact and the court agreed."

Tulsa's Deputy Chief of Police Jonathan Brooks says they've been studying the use of force data and making it public for years, always with the goal of improving.

"If we're talking about bias, we've taken it very seriously with a considerable investment in implicit bias training and the amount of training that we make our officers go through that incorporates every aspect of that and every component of training that they do," said Deputy Chief Brooks.

The deputy chief says training and practices are continually changing.

The city plans to continue referencing the equality indicator data to see where change is needed.

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