Neighbors notice drop in crime after initiative

By NICOLE MARSHALL World Staff Writer

9/16/2007

Officers assigned to the Safe City Initiative have arrested 74 people since the crackdown targeting high-crime areas began in late August.

Some Tulsa residents like Ken Bacon said that they are already noticing a difference.

Bacon, who lives near 32nd Street and 101st East Avenue, said there is a noticeable difference in the amount of criminal activity in his area because of the Safe City Initiative, which began in late August.

Criminal activity seemed to overflow from a nearby apartment complex and a bar, Bacon said, and residents in his neighborhood were frequent victims of car and home burglaries.

He would often hear loud music at night and gunfire from the complex, Bacon said. Careless drivers even drove through a complex fence near an area where children had been playing just minutes earlier, he said.

"If they had been there, they would have been killed," he said of the children.

But Safe City officers have been patrolling the area, and the noise and crime levels have subsided, Bacon said.

"The increased presence by the officers is helping. I have to give them all praise for what they are doing," he said.

Bacon said Capt. Matt Kirkland, the task force's supervisor, gave him his card and told him to call anytime -- day or night -- if there was a crime problem, and someone would respond.

"That means a lot to me," said Bacon.

Since the Safe City Initiative started Aug. 26, officers assigned to the unit have made 49 felony arrests and 25 misdemeanor arrests.

They have also seized seven handguns and made numerous drug arrests, most of which involved possession with intent to distribute drugs such as cocaine and marijuana.

"We have a list of individuals whose names keep coming up in relation to violent crime in Tulsa," Kirkland said.

The Safe City officers have also assisted investigators in recent high-profile cases, he said.

They helped homicide detectives in the search for Martinez Williams, who was arrested in the homicide of a man who was shot while working outside his mother's home on Tuesday.

They also have been searching for Jermaine Jeffery, who is charged with the death of a woman whose car was rear-ended by a suspect who was fleeing a shooting Sept. 7, and for Brandon Brown, who is charged with a homicide at a bar late Thursday.

Brown turned himself in on Friday evening.

"Whenever these high-profile violent crimes lend themselves to having a lot of officers out looking for a suspect and tracking someone down, we are ready to just jump right in," Kirkland said.

But because the team's focus is on patrolling areas where crime frequently occurs, they are likely to be nearby when a violent crime occurs.

"Because of past incidents associated with high school games," Kirkland said, Safe City officers were patrolling the area around McLain High School for Science and Technology when shots were fired outside the school after a football game on Aug. 31.

The Safe City officers took one of the suspects into custody, Kirkland said.

Aaron Calvert, security coordinator of Tulsa Housing Authority, said he has noticed a more visible police presence in all parts of the city since the the Safe City Initiative started.

"They look for specific people, and they are turning over every rock, whether it is on our properties or not on our properties," Calvert said.

Another focus of the unit is to crack down on clubs where violent crimes frequently occur or start.

So far this year, at least six of the 50 homicides in Tulsa occurred at clubs or resulted from fights that started at clubs, Kirkland said.

Nicole Marshall 581-8459

nicole.marshall@tulsaworld.com

Copyright Tulsa World 2007. Format differs from original publication.