{"id":32951,"date":"2020-06-18T11:28:52","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T16:28:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=32951"},"modified":"2020-06-18T18:22:29","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T23:22:29","slug":"oklahoma-city-black-lives-matter-requests-more-robust-transparent-police-oversight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2020\/06\/18\/oklahoma-city-black-lives-matter-requests-more-robust-transparent-police-oversight\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma City Black Lives Matter requests more robust, transparent police oversight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.simplecast.com\/1d1ed544-0245-491f-b8c9-80569e811362?dark=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p><p>A 57-year-old black woman accused an Oklahoma City police officer of rape in 2014. Her accusation led to the investigation, arrest and conviction of Daniel Holtzclaw.<\/p><p>Eventually, the officer with around 3 years on the police force was accused of raping and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeednews.com\/article\/jtes\/daniel-holtzclaw-women-in-their-ow\">sexually assaulting at least 13 victims<\/a>, all of them were black. One victim was 17.<\/p><p>\u201cThe fact that things weren\u2019t quite frankly radically changed after Daniel Holtzclaw, I mean is mind boggling,\u201d Joshua Higginbotham said.<\/p><p>Higginbotham is an activist with the Oklahoma City chapter of Black Lives Matter. He and other activists want Oklahoma City residents to have more insight into investigations of police misconduct.<\/p><p>Residents of Oklahoma City often don&#8217;t hear the details surrounding complaints against police and the investigations they prompt.<\/p><p>Black Lives Matter activists, emboldened by nationwide protests against police violence, are calling for a new system of oversight.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_32900\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/oklahoman.com\/special\/article\/5480916\/hunting-holtzclaw\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-32900 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/06\/Protest-GF-2-1920x1296.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1296\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/06\/Protest-GF-2-1920x1296.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/06\/Protest-GF-2-672x454.jpg 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/06\/Protest-GF-2-768x518.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/06\/Protest-GF-2-150x101.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/06\/Protest-GF-2-300x202.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/06\/Protest-GF-2-620x418.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/06\/Protest-GF-2-1600x1080.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Black Lives Matter protesters on the Eastside of Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n<\/div><p><a href=\"https:\/\/oklahoman.com\/special\/article\/5480916\/hunting-holtzclaw\">It was police who followed up on accusations<\/a>\u00a0against Holtzclaw and arrested him, but the police had to track down most of his victims.<\/p><p>Most of the women didn\u2019t initially file complaints with the department. Higginbotham believes that\u2019s a sign too many residents don\u2019t trust police to investigate themselves.<\/p><p>In fact, many of Holtzclaw\u2019s victims said they didn\u2019t come forward because they didn\u2019t think anyone would take their word over a police officer\u2019s.<\/p><p>\u201cThey make that determination because of experience,\u201d Higginbotham said.<\/p>\n<h3>Citizen complaints and punishment<\/h3><p>From January, 2015 to May, 2020, 303 complaints were filed against Oklahoma City Police Department employees: police officers and civilians.<\/p><p>Ninety-two of those complaints resulted in either \u201cdisciplinary or corrective action.\u201d Corrective action could mean employees are put in some form of training or sent to counseling.<\/p><p>Disciplinary action could have resulted in employees\u2019 pay being docked, demotion, suspension or firing.<\/p><p>Department spokesperson Capt. Larry Withrow said state law doesn\u2019t require police to share copies of the complaints or records of the investigations the complaints prompted. The department also refused to name most of the employees who received complaints.<\/p><p>It released the names of four police officers and one civilian employee who received substantiated complaints so serious, they were either fired or suspended without pay. Holtzclaw was one of them.<\/p><p>The agency also released the names of 15 employees fired, demoted or suspended without pay for offenses that were uncovered through internal investigations.<\/p><p>Higginbotham wants more information. He thinks there may not be any amount of scrutiny that is strong enough to hold police accountable for the wide-ranging powers they\u2019re granted by the public.<\/p>\n<h3>Keeping tabs on police<\/h3><p>Oklahoma City has a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.okc.gov\/departments\/police\/about-us\/citizens-advisory-board\">part-time citizen\u2019s advisory board <\/a>allowed to review citizen\u2019s complaints and police investigations of employees. The volunteer board is limited to making recommendations. Their meetings and most of their work aren\u2019t public record.<\/p><p>The board\u2019s chair declined to comment for this story and referred questions to the police department.<\/p><p>Black Lives Matter doesn\u2019t want to rely on just that board. The activists have suggested a new approach. They\u2019ve asked the city to hire an independent police monitor.<\/p><p>Joshua Higgenbotham says he hopes such a monitor would be granted the power to subpoena records and people.<\/p><p>He describes the position ideally as \u201csomeone that is maybe not adversarial but that is willing to take on tough cases &#8230; And instills confidence in the public so that they know, they have someone who watches the watchers.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>An example from New Orleans<\/h3><p>Higginbotham would like to adopt and build on <a href=\"https:\/\/nolaipm.gov\/\">the monitoring system in New Orleans<\/a>, a city that \u2013 like Oklahoma City \u2013 has a mayor with limited power over the police.<\/p><p>Susan Hutson is New Orleans\u2019 current independent police monitor. She says her office can\u2019t investigate police misconduct but they can review investigations and examine a wide range of police work.<\/p><p>\u201cWe monitor, audit, review, report on and as part of those reports, make recommendations about reform and change for the New Orleans Police Department,\u201d Hutson said.<\/p><p>Hutson is also president of the board of directors for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nacole.org\/\">National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement<\/a>. Her independent monitor office takes civilian complaints, reviews them, and writes reports on investigations. All of their reports are shared with the public.<\/p><p>Her office even goes into the field to investigate when police fire their weapons or hospitalize someone.<\/p><p>Also, Hutson added, \u201canytime that there\u2019s head or neck trauma \u2026 anytime there\u2019s an in-custody death.\u201d<\/p><p>She says <a href=\"https:\/\/d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net\/nacole\/pages\/161\/attachments\/original\/1481727977\/NACOLE_short_doc_FINAL.pdf?1481727977\">independence and transparency<\/a> are crucial to their work.<\/p><p>It&#8217;s unkown whether the more hands on approach will be welcomed in Oklahoma City. Mayor David Holt has said he\u2019s open to reviewing police oversight. He\u2019s said the citizen\u2019s advisory board seems too closed off from the public.<\/p><p>But, the city isn\u2019t making drastic changes right away. Holt and other city leaders are launching two task forces. One will review police policies. The other, co-led by Councilmember Nikki Nice, will review the possibility of creating a human rights commission.<\/p><p>Police Chief Wade Gourley said in a written statement he\u2019s open to discussing reform with members of the community as long as those changes don\u2019t conflict with the law.<\/p>\n<h3>A bad experience close to home<\/h3><p>Angela Hornsby, a black woman living on the Eastside of Oklahoma City is hopeful the latest efforts to push change will make a difference, but she\u2019s skeptical.<\/p><p>She had a bad experience with police in 2017, which she recounted for the Oklahoma City Council.<\/p><p>Hornsby was driving home from Tulsa with her son who was about 5-years-old at the time and has down syndrome. Her son had fallen asleep.<\/p><p>Oklahoma City police signaled her to pullover. She\u2019d later learn the light that illuminates her license plate had gone out. Hornsby says she was a few houses from her home and decided to pull into her driveway, because it was well lit.<\/p><p>\u201cI went to open the door and the police with a gun pointed at me yelled, \u2018Do not get out of the car,\u2019\u201d Hornsby remembered.<\/p><p>There were two officers. They eventually let her out of the car, but she says one officer \u2013 gun drawn \u2013 inspected her car.<\/p><p>\u201cThe only person in my car is my baby who\u2019s sleeping and has a disability,\u201d Hornsby said.<\/p><p>Hornsby didn\u2019t get cited for the stop. She also didn\u2019t file a complaint. She didn\u2019t even consider it an option. Hornsby doesn\u2019t believe a complaint filed by her would be taken seriously.<\/p><p>\u201cI tell on the police to the police. It just doesn\u2019t make sense,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Residents of Oklahoma City often don&#8217;t hear the details surrounding complaints against police and the investigations they prompt. Black Lives Matter activists are calling for independent probes of police investigations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":32902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[1262,1272,1273,409,1269,1271,1270,1268,800,1267],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32951"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32951"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32970,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32951\/revisions\/32970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}