Tulsa Multiagency Violent Crime Initiative Results In 110 Arrests

The violent crime initiative involved eight different city, state and federal agencies and was created after four women were murdered in the 61st and Peoria area earlier this year.

Thursday, June 27th 2013, 5:51 pm

By: News On 6

Tulsa Multiagency Violent Crime Initiative Results In 110 Arrests

Officers and agents have spent the past two months rounding up criminals around 61st and South Peoria in Tulsa.

The violent crime initiative involved eight different city, state and federal agencies and was created after four women were murdered in that area earlier this year.

We went on a ride along with some task force officers.

Police say they're going after the worst of the worst - drug dealers, shooters, murderers - in an effort to clean up the streets.

"We got a couple guns, a trafficking cocaine arrest," said Sgt. Sean Larkin.

Larkin and his gang unit provided a lot of information for this sweep. The daily briefing lets officers know who's been arrested and who is still out there.

This is U.S. Attorney Danny Williams' creation, but it takes a lot of people to make it happen.

"If you guys go get 'em, I promise we'll prosecute 'em if we have federal cases," Williams said.

After confirming the warrants, officers start looking for the people on their list.

They arrested 110 people from April to June, most on felony charges. Plus, they recovered 24 guns, meth, cocaine, pot and cash.

This type of sweep has been done before in Tulsa's notoriously high crime area, but they say this time it's different, because it's a total approach. In addition to the arrests, HUD was evicting people who shouldn't be living in the complexes or who were housing criminals. Plus, they'll offer some of the suspects a chance to turn their lives around.

"We're not just looking at it as who we can put handcuffs on, we're looking at who we can keep out of handcuffs in the future," said Police Chief Chuck Jordan.

They plan to identify about 10 of those arrested and help them turn their lives around by partnering with an agency that does counseling and teaches life skills.

"Part of that counseling is getting a job, getting a GED, drug testing, so there is accountability. And the hammer is, if you will not follow through, will not make a change in your life, we'll send you to the penitentiary," Williams said.

They say this isn't a one-and-done effort. They plan to do the same thing in other parts of the city until violent offenders get the message.

"We will find you, we will prosecute you and we will punish you," said District Attorney Tim Harris.

They have high hopes that doing this long-term, working as a team and coming at it from different angles, will go a long way toward keeping people safe.