Tulsa Police independent oversight ordinance falls short

Tulsa's Mean Girls clique, the group of four city councilwomen who text each other during meetings to mock citizens and fellow councilors, were the only four yes votes on Wednesday to create an independent commission to pass judgment on Tulsa's police officers. The proposed ordinance failed by a vote of 4-4-1:

• Yes: Vanessa Hall Harper (District 1), Jackie Dutton (District 3), Laura Bellis (District 4), Lori Decter-Wright (District 7)
• No: Karen Gilbert (District 5), Christian Bengel (District 6), Phil Lakin (District 8), Carol Bush (District 9)
• Abstain: Anthony Archie (District 2)

Independent oversight commissions have become a popular fad in liberal cities, particularly since the Black Lives Matter movement and the George Floyd incident of 2020. The concept behind these commissions is that All Cops Are Bastards (if you've seen the acronym ACAB, that's what it means) and therefore we need people with no clue about standard police practice to second-guess, in leisurely hindsight, the split-second decisions made by police officers dealing with crisis situations involving unstable and dangerous people. Proponents hope that awareness of this second-guessing will cause police officers to hesitate to enforce the law, particularly if the apparent perpetrator is from a protected ethnic group. An axiom of the theory behind these commissions is that arrest numbers vary across socioeconomic and demographic groups only because cops are racist; it couldn't possibly be because of variations in the frequency of criminal behavior across groups. These commissions are part of the standard kit for converting your city from an orderly, clean, and prosperous place to a chaotic and dangerous hell-hole. (A pro-criminal district attorney is also a component in the kit; we narrowly escaped that fate in June.)

The proposal was ridiculously complex. For all the claims that this would promote transparency and accountability, the director of the Office of Independent Review and Oversight of Public Safety (OIROPS) would be in the "classified service" -- protected from public accountability by civil service rules. The seven members of the OIROPS Advisory Board would be handpicked by the Mayor, as would the eleven members of the Citizens Oversight Board, which would oversee the Advisory Board.

The City Council, directly accountable to the voters, has power under the Tulsa City Charter to oversee any aspect of city government. From Article II:

Section 16. - Review of administrative actions.

The Council shall provide by ordinance for the grant, issuance, modification, amendment, or revocation of orders, licenses, permits, certificates, and approvals by the divisions, departments, and agencies of the city. Except when otherwise provided by the laws of Oklahoma, the grant, issuance, modification, amendment, or revocation of orders, licenses, permits, certificates, and approvals shall be subject to review by the Council, upon petition by an aggrieved person, in accord with procedures which the Council shall establish by ordinance. The Council may not abrogate any right of review by a court of competent jurisdiction.

Section 17. - Investigations and hearings.

The Council may investigate the conduct of the city government and may make appraisals, comments, and recommendations to the Mayor on the efficiency, economy, and effectiveness of administrative practices, methods, systems, and controls. The Council shall hear complaints made by citizens concerning the administration of the city government. The Council may subpoena witnesses, administer oaths, and compel testimony, the production of books, papers, or other evidence necessary for the discharge of the duties of the Council. The Mayor shall designate police officers to serve orders and subpoenas issued by the Council. The Council shall provide by ordinance the penalties for the contempt by any person who refuses to obey a Council order or subpoena.

But that's too much hard work for this Council.

For the record, here is item 7.c. on the Tulsa City Council's October 14, 2026, 5 pm regular meeting agenda:

c. Consideration and possible approval, adoption, denial, amendment or revision of an Ordinance adopting a new Title 16, Tulsa Revised Ordinances, titled "Independent Review and Oversight of Public Safety"; creating the Office of Independent Review and Oversight of Public Safety and the position of Director; establishing the powers, duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and reporting requirements of the Office and Director; providing for the review and oversight of certain Public Safety investigations; providing for confidentiality of certain information and records; creating a civilian oversight board and establishing its membership, qualifications, terms, powers, duties, meetings, and reporting requirements. (Hall-Harper, Decter Wright) [PW 9/16/26; CC 9/16/26; BUD/SP 9/23/26; CC 9/23/26; UED 9/30/26; UED 10/14/26; CC 10/14/26] 26-734-6

Vanessa Hall-Harper and Lori Decter Wright are the authors of the ordinance. The list at the end indicates the committee meetings and council meetings at which the ordinance was heard. PW is Public Works, BUD is budget, UED is urban and economic development. There is a set of supporting documentation:

• the September 14, 2026, version of the proposed ordinance
• a presentation on the proposal
• a comparison of the structure and powers of Oklahoma City's Community Public Safety Advisory Board with the proposed Tulsa Office of Independent Review and Oversight of Public Safety
• a half-million dollar budget for the new Office
• City of Tulsa salary and benefits by department and pay grade for FY 2026-27 and FY 2027-28
• the May 2022 presentation report from the Council Trust & Accountability Working Group

That last item includes the 2019 proposal for an Office of Independent Monitor (OIM), which specifically targeted the Tulsa Police Department, and includes a 2022 report by the working group describing the TPD "reforms" that they were considering. The working group consisted of Hall-Harper, Decter Wright, and the District 5 Councilor Mykey Arthrell-Knezek -- apparently a hyphenated or double-barrelled last name was a requirement for participation. The report is useful documentation that this idea of an OIM came from then-Mayor G. T. Bynum, who pretended to be a conservative Republican when first running for council (parading his brief period of service in Tom Coburn's Senate office as evidence of his conservative bona fides), but showed his true rainbow-flag colors once in office.

That 2022 report and presentation is proof that bad ideas never completely die, and we can expect to see this one return unless we clean out the City Council. Unfortunately, the 2026 City of Tulsa general election happened on August 25, in which three councilors were re-elected without opposition, four councilors won re-election with an absolute majority, and one new councilor won an open seat with an absolute majority (Pete Regan in District 9, the 2004 Democrat Lt. Gov. nominee).

The lone opportunity to replace one of the malign influences on the City Council falls to District 1. Corinice Wilson finished second in the August 25 election to incumbent Vanessa Hall-Harper and the two have advanced to a November 3 runoff. Hall-Harper reacted badly to the defeat of her proposal with a rant. Reality Snark on X has the clip and a transcription:

"...but, then you got to understand.. from an historical perspective in this country that's intentional...That's why only historically who can engage and participate in government, WHITE MEN WITH LAND" That is the history...cause I'm a history teacher... That is the history...You obviously haven't read a book (to audience member who disagreed). History bears that out, and it still is apropos today---thats just the reality of it and we are still reeling from it today."

Hall Harper claims to be "unbought and unbossed," but unhinged would be a more appropriate term, given this performance and earlier outbursts like her use of a racist slur to denounce U. S. Sen. Tim Scott or her rant condemning the Tulsa city flag as racist.

And what about that abstention from professed Republican Anthony Archie, who represents Tulsa west of the river and the western part of south Tulsa? During his first run for office in 2024, I wrote:

...Archie was a registered independent as recently as April 2023, changing his registration sometime between then and last December, and his wife is a registered Democrat. Archie has a lot of endorsements that are negative indicators -- Tulsa World, Karen Keith, the Tulsa Chamber's TulsaBizPAC -- and he seems poised to fall in line with Phil Lakin and the rest of the establishment uniparty at City Hall. In March 2023, Archie called for passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a Federal bill, backed by the Democrats, that would have nationalized Blue city policies that make police officers hesitant to be pro-active, resulting in an explosion of crime and disorder.

District 2 is one of the more conservative sections of Tulsa. There needs to be an active effort by conservatives, starting today, to find a reliable conservative to replace Archie on the Council in 2028. Ideally, that would be part of a broader city-wide effort to recruit and elect conservatives to the Council. It would be awesome if the Tulsa County Republican Party would take the lead in that effort, but they'd have to develop a selection process by which the party would evaluate and back one candidate in each race, even if more than one registered Republican is running.

The county party established a candidate evaluation committee for the 2024 election, and I was appointed to serve on it. Strangely, after Anthony Archie appeared before the committee, the committee was never reconvened to make endorsements, and county party leaders failed to endorse Brent Van Norman for mayor until a week before the election, feeling that the rules did not permit them to make a recommendation in a race with multiple registered Republicans. (They waited for other registered Republican candidates to give their permission for the Tulsa County GOP to endorse Van Norman.) In the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and many other countries that don't have party primaries, parties have an internal process for interviewing, screening, and selecting candidates. The Oklahoma GOP or the Tulsa County GOP could look to those processes for ideas in establishing rules established to create a process for party selection of candidates for "non-partisan" offices, in which there are no party primaries.