Oklahoma City Police To Eliminate 11 Positions

Tuesday, November 22nd 2016, 5:40 pm

By: Karl Torp

Oklahoma City police will be eliminating 11 positions under a proposed plan to cut the city's budget.

Every department funded through the City's general fund is being asked to cut 1.25 percent to save $9.2 million.

The City said economic growth in Oklahoma City dropped nearly 3 percent from what economist had predicted for the fiscal year.

Of the 11 police positions, seven are currently vacant.

The four remaining police officers serve as school resource officers at elementary schools.

Those four officers will be reassigned to other patrol positions. Three civilian police positions will also be cut.

Oklahoma City police Chief Bill Citty said people will not notice a difference in patrols and response times after the cuts.

"The risk in elementary schools of having a problem is a lot less than having an issue to the middle schools," said Citty.

Citty said rover officers will still be able to check in at schools.

School resource officers in elementary schools only began last year with eight officers. Four of them were funded by the Oklahoma City Public Schools.

Those four were cut at the beginning of the school year due to school budget cuts.

"I just think our funding should go to have officers in the schools because of things happening around the country," said elementary school parent Tisha Bentley.

Oklahoma City Fire and Rescue is taking a different approach to the budget cuts.

The department is taking equipment out of their rotation and saving the money off of days.

For example, their brush pumpers used to fight wildfires will be occasionally taken out of service when conditions aren't ripe for fires.

If the proposal passes in as little as two weeks, this would be the first time for mid-year budget cuts since the 2008 recession.