2021 Oklahoma Project Safe Neighborhood - Northern District

The 2021 PSN grant will be awarded to the Tulsa Police Department, who also holds the 2018-2020 PSN grants. The 2021 grant will expand the TPD’s Targeted Enforcement Areas (TEAs) within the Mingo Valley Division, the Riverside Division, and the Gilcrease Division. These particular TEAs have been selected due to their high crime levels and because they are hubs for gang and gun violence. This grant will continue TPD’s efforts to minimize gang and gun violence by providing overtime funds for officers to follow leads, identify suspects, and patrol hotspots. Extremely violent gang members will be identified and surveilled, and the project’s emphasis will be on aggravated assaults with a firearm, and robberies with a firearm, including shooting with intent to kill and shooting into an occupied dwelling or house. In 2016, Tulsa experienced 1,545 crimes involving a firearm, and in 2020 that number rose to 1,655. Assaults with a firearm increased in 2020 to 1,253 from 889 over that same period - an increase of 40.9%. These particular crimes are what Tulsa Police Department aims to focus on with this grant award. Many gun-related crimes in the city are related to the gang presence, therefore at least 30% of the project’s funds will be used specifically to target gang members committing these crimes.