Latest / The County Line / The County Line Podcast: Ep. 14

Transcript

The County Line Podcast: Ep. 14 · The County Line

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the County Line Podcast, the production of the Tulsa County Board of County Commissioners.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, Tulsa County.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Ethan Hutchins here with the Tulsa County Board of County Commissioners for another edition of the County Line Podcast.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: And today I'm joined with District 1 Commissioner Stan Salee, Tulsa Police Chief Jonathan Brooks, and David Parker with their juvenile detention home.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Gentlemen, today we're talking about our CIC or Community Intervention Center.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: David, what is that?
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_03: Well, the Community Intervention Center is a uh a program that was set up years ago by uh um the OJA, which oversees our juveniles, and and they set up funding for it.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_03: And through the years, uh, you know, with different things, uh the county resumed responsibility for that.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_03: And the responsibility is that uh we work with our partners to bring in juveniles that aren't necessarily detainable offenses, but yet uh there's no place for them to go.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so the the the police are able to bring them in, uh, we watch them, we interact with uh uh DHS or contact the parents and get them to come in and pick those up, but the whole time that still doesn't alleviate the judicial process.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_03: Uh CIC, which is community intervention, sets up court dates, uh, puts them with providers, and sometimes we keep those kids for 24 hours and even longer.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_03: And by having them, it frees up our partners, such as Tulsa Police Department, to take that patrolman, put them back out onto the streets, and uh continue to patrol our streets to make our city safer.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_03: So we provide the service, and and I know it's a horrible term, but we provide kind of a babysitting service for lack of a better term.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so, how how have we gotten these different law enforcement partners to buy into this and help support it?
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's a question for the chief as well.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: How is Tulsa partnering on this?
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I can take that one.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um First of all, it's it's very basic for us.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: We uh Tulsa police officers have a lot of contact with juveniles in in this community.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: And not every contact is is always criminal in nature.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: So a large component of the community intervention center is really about when we can counter children that are basically in just a need of general supervision, right?
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: They're out there on the streets, uh, we can't find their family members or a custodian to to accept responsibility for them, or some low-level offenses uh such as violating curfew and things, uh, well, we just can't leave them on the street.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: So it is is integral that we have this partnership where we have a safe place to take these juveniles.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: And and by providing this safe place, we can reduce some of the violence that we see on the streets with with juveniles.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: And and so with the city as as we sit right now, and specifically the police department, uh we're we're dealing with issues of addressing uh the crime in the city, and and we don't have the uh the bandwidth to take this on alone, nor does the county.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: But together, when we collaborate, and Commissioner Sally, we have to greatly appreciate your efforts on this, but but when we combine our governments with the city and the county, and we have this collaborative effort that uh serves our community better, it's sufficient for both of us to partner on this.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um and and and what we see in the community is this the phenomenal outcomes that are better than if we had any other alternative.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let's talk about the partnership and the support that the county has had in this.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, before uh 2024, uh before the county took over the juvenile detention facility and operating it, uh knew a little bit about the CIC, but but not as much as we know now.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: And and it it's a tremendous benefit.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh being a former mayor in Collinsville and and from up north, you know, a lot of the smaller communities, they don't have the bandwidth, the personnel that can sit at uh and babysit these kids uh while they're going through the CIC.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: And and so it's a tremendous benefit to be able to drop those individuals off and let the county, uh the CIC department manage that so the police officers can get back to their communities, because some of those only have one or two people, you know, on patrol.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: So uh and and it's something that is shared.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: The intent was never just the city of Tulsa to pay for this or the county.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: You know, this is all communities are going to benefit and have benefited from it.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: So uh we've been reaching out to all the communities and trying to do some contractual obligations that that we all share in this uh tremendous benefit for their communities.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, Ethan, um CIC is not a statutory required uh process.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_03: It's uh it's only there through the collaboration uh with the users.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_03: Um we found when when the county commissioners took over, uh it was almost a million-dollar uh investment annually uh coming out of county coffers.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_03: And we do had some great uh uh cities that that helped us with that, and Tulsa being the largest.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um and so I just think that uh it's been a real, real great process to uh to to continue that.
• 5:21
  unknown: Yeah.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: And Chief, what what is um the the the biggest benefit of having this for I know you kind of mentioned, you know, as did Commissioner and David about letting officers get back to other responsibilities on their shift.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, how much benefits have you seen through the use of the CIC for your officers?
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_02: So what I hear the most from is from the officers on the street, uh, because uh dealing with juveniles and juvenile crime and even juveniles that uh are in need of supervision where they can't is time consuming.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_02: It takes them off the streets from dealing with the other crimes of of victims calling in and addressing offenders in this city.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: So allowing them to have a safe drop-out for this juvenile and then quickly getting back out, uh returning to the calls that uh were other citizens requesting it, is is huge because it is very time-consuming to sit with that juvenile until they can find a safe place or or try to locate a family member or somebody that's willing to an adult that's willing to accept responsibility for them.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's where uh David and and his group comes in.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um I don't know if anybody understands the difficulty of managing an operation like this.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so the the this partnership has been great because now a Tulsa police officer, when they do that have that, they can just within minutes drop this juvenile off and immediately turn return to the street instead of spending hours sitting there out of service.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_03: If if the paperwork's done, our goal is to have uh the officer in and out in 15 minutes, get him back on the street or her back on the street patrolling.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: And can you explain to the the the viewers what the CIC looks like?
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean what where it's located at our facility?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_03: Uh yes.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, fortunately uh Tulsa County was able to uh build a brand new detention facility and combine it with the courts for juveniles, and and in that we were able to bring in the community intervention center in with that.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_03: It was separate before.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_03: Um it's at the uh east end of our facility, and basically the the officer drives into a secure uh garage.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_03: Uh we shut the door to eliminate any any potential uh escapes or anything.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_03: We bring them in, we we talk to the kids, we tell them you know what the process is.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_03: Uh obviously there's paperwork that goes along because we get some some very uh uh heinous crimes as well as as uh just uh curfew issues.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_03: And so same process, they come in, we we uh enter them into the system, we do their paperwork, and and the ones that are detainable offenses, then we bring them on across to the detention area.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_03: But as they come in, we find kids that uh don't have shoes on, and so we'll we'll give them shoes and we dress them out.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_03: Uh a lot of them have an eight, so we feed them if they're if they're in a situation to where they're um are are dirty from being on the street or being uh you know had an accident or whatever during the the process, uh we shower them, uh give them new shoes and and we give them a medical checkup uh uh as they come in.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_03: Um you know there's we have contracts with uh medical providers, so we do that as well.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_03: And and if there's anything that's found during that, of course we relay that to the to the family or whoever picks them up so they can try to address that on the way out.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_03: So it provides not only a great support uh for our our local law enforcement, but it also can provide uh you know some information for families that they may not be aware of.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: Ethan, I'd be remiss if I I don't give a shout out to Mayor Nichols on his tremendous support um on improving outcomes uh, you know, not only in public safety, but for family and children's and his support of this collaboration and also for our public safety commissioner, Laurel Roberts, who has been instrumental in ensuring that this uh partnership proceeds forward.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: Uh without their support, you know, it would be uh a little bit more difficult task.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_02: But uh between uh his leadership and uh Commissioner Salee's and and and David's here, um uh it's taken a team to make this this work happen.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: So um again, I I do want to thank him and and uh and the public safety commissioner and Commissioner Salee.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we we all know how important the juvenile bureau, the the job they have to do in the detention side.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: Adjudication is one thing, but but managing the kids and and you know housing them is totally different.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: And even in the booking process, how you handle a juvenile, I don't have to tell the chief here.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it is totally different than an adult.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so one of the first things when uh Mayor Nichols came into office, uh Commissioner Roberts and Mayor Nichols uh accepted the invitation to come to the juvenile bureau or to the detention facility.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: And and Chief Brooks, you might have been there as well, I believe.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: And and so we toured the facility to make sure they had a good understanding of what we're dealing with, and and because these youths are you know from everywhere, not just Tulsa's, but but every parts of the county.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: And it's an important, and we've had municipal leaders as well, and and and part of you know, going to each community.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: David and I have, you know, in our district in District One, went to every municipality, talked with the city manager and the mayor, just to explain to them because uh not that they're unaware, but you know, unless you're in this world, I mean you're not sure what a CIC and what they do.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: So uh communicating with your community partners is is critical.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: And it was a great meeting, and uh we're on the same team here.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: We're we're trying to make sure we we get the officers back on the street, but also take care of the juveniles and in their need.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, because these are difficult, difficult times for for families and and these kids going through this process and and the professionals that have to deal with it and and do everything right.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: So uh communication working together is vital.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: And David, um, where are we at with other communities being a part of this program?
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's it's so great to have TPD involved with this, but uh, I would imagine getting other municipalities to support this would be a huge um benefit for us.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you know, budgets and resources are always a concern of government, and uh anytime you introduce something new, it's sometimes if you hadn't been part of that process, it it uh it takes some some communication and talking amongst yourself.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_03: And so we are open and and ready to take any other community in uh that wants to enter into the local agreement with us.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_03: Uh matter of fact, yesterday we sent a another local agreement to to someone that had chosen not to participate.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_03: Um and we want all of them to come in because this is a community uh process, and uh uh the more that uh enters the local agreement, I think the better off that we serve our public.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_03: Um so I I think that I think we'll see more and more people that want to uh enter into the local agreement with us.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: Chief, do you find um this partnership being just one of many partnerships that you might want to keep um fostering as you're now about to start your you know, your term or your your opportunity as police chief?
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_02: Oh absolutely.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: I think there's a lot of ways that governments, whether it's the city and county or tribal, uh that all the governments can partner to work to serve and and and enhance public safety um uh for the city and and for the county and for the uh tribal nation or for the U.S.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_02: district or for any of those.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think there are a lot of opportunities moving forward that we're going to be uh having talks on how we can partner um and just be more efficient because sometimes we're doing the same thing just in different silos when we could be working together and and solving bigger problems.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I anticipate there's gonna be a lot of future discussions uh that would resemble this model.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I should say it's not a term, it's it's it's you know, a tenure uh and you're doing this concurrently with Chief Larson, he retires soon, but you both are serving concurrently, is that correct?
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, that is correct.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: So Chief Larson uh he is uh he's still serving as as the chief as well.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it it may sound a little complicated to have two chiefs, but uh uh this is to ensure that there's a smooth transition, uh smooth exchange of uh the power and authority that's invested into the chief uh for this city.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um his last day will be the end of this month.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so um and and I would also like to thank him for his years of service, you know, serving the city for 45 plus years um as a law enforcement.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: At this day and age, that's difficult to do.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so um he's he's served well and with honor, and so we appreciate all his service.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: I also think I would be remiss if I didn't kind of give you a platform to to talk about, you know, what goals you might have as chief for Tulsa as you kind of move forward.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so um well the first thing is as as we're getting back to we want to make sure that the citizens are safe and secure in their home.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um as I go around this next hundred days listening to the needs and the concerns of of the community, well we're gonna take all that in and and listen to them.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm already listening to uh what the concerns are, and they just want to be safe.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_02: They want to be safe when they're at their home, they want to be safe when they're in their neighborhood, and they want to be safe when they go to work.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I'm hearing that time and time again.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_02: So that's gonna really re-establish what our priorities are gonna be moving forward.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Commissioner, public safety is paramount to what you do as uh as a commissioner.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this CIC partnership is just another example of that.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: It it is, and and I I too want to uh thank uh Chief Larson for for his service and and uh you know we appreciate uh Mayor Nichols and his thoughtful selection for the next chief.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I first met this gentleman in my first year at uh uh the BOCC uh in 2019 and uh hadn't met Jonathan before.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: And next thing you know, I think uh early in the year we had a traumatic uh flood uh that devastated this region.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: And Jonathan was leading the charge on the emergency management from the city of Tulson.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: We met, it felt like a bunker of about 50 or 100 of us, but uh in in very tense situations and handled himself in a professional manner, and really including everybody, getting the facts out there and uh very professional, and I'll never forget that because it was a pretty difficult time for a lot of people not knowing what was going to happen with the levies and and very serious uh a lot of implications.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: Things could happen that uh uh we were hopefully prepared for, but uh it takes a good person like this to to be ready for this job, and and I think uh Tulsa has a good one.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, is there anything else we want to add to uh inform our our viewers about the CIC, the partnership in general and where we're headed?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_03: Well uh Ethan, I I want to say that I I believe that uh the Community Intervention Center is a vital uh part of our our uh law enforcement community.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_03: And um when when the commissioners had to take this over and we went in and looked at it, um it's really hard to ask people to to pitch in, especially if it's from a financial standpoint.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, the the city of Tulsa was there standing up uh before we ever asked anybody.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_03: And so I want to commend them for that.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um and I want to let everybody know that we want everybody to be our partner.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um and and and so those those local agreements are are available anytime.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_03: I'll come talk to them, uh bring them the contract, explain it to them, and and and you know, share anything they want to know.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_03: I also would like to close by saying that, you know, I I come to Tulsa in 17 after a long tenure with the state, and the first person I met with Tulsa PT was uh Jonathan.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I want I want uh him to know I appreciate that I've never called him and I've never emailed him that I didn't get a response.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that says a lot to uh your professionalism integrity.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_03: Didn't always agree on everything, but uh we were always to come to a conclusion.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_03: So I appreciate that.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_02: Well that I think that's that's a good point uh about a good partnership.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we're not always going to agree, but we're gonna keep working forward and um and we'll we'll continue that partnership even when we don't agree.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: So we'll we'll find solutions.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely, because it's it's for the best for the community.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, yeah.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I I think this last year uh from the low barrier shelter working with the city into some other initiatives that we're working on, we're really heading in a good good direction, and uh uh together we can really achieve a lot and uh working together is the and communicating is the number one thing.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to thank David for coming on board.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: Pulling him out of retirement two years ago.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh he just thought he was retired, but he's done a tremendous job at the Juvenile Bureau or at the detention facility and uh managing these kids.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: This is a difficult uh situation that having having to uh manage these kids, children and that come in that have some serious difficulties, serious problems, and have some committed serious crimes.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and so uh their first step into there is the CIC in our facility.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: So it's such a critical thing and uh to have partners all around the county that uh work with us on the CIC.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we very much appreciate it, and uh we want to continue working with them.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you, all three of you, for this very informative uh discussion.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that those who watch this they learn something about the CIC and why this partnership matters with Tulsa.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you for sitting down and talking.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, for those watching, we will see you next time on the County Line Podcast.