Oct. 16-- Tulsa Public Schools' campus police officers will be taking on more responsibility for crime reporting under changes to the department's jurisdiction agreement with the Tulsa Police Department.
The Tulsa school board approved an amendment to its existing agreement with the city Monday.
Campus Police Chief Gary Rudick said most of the changes are simply a natural progression because the school's police force has grown in experience during its four years of existence.
"We have a lot of TPD retirees, so we were encountering situations where (city) officers were showing up and seeing a campus police officer with the same size badge and saying, 'Hey, I worked with you for 20 years. I know you know how to take this report,' " Rudick said. "It will save on time and a lot of duplication of effort."
Rudick said campus police will still refer the most serious cases, including suspected child abuse or sexual abuse, for investigative follow-up by Tulsa police.
"There is no doubt that follow-up investigations need to be done by a group with a forensic interview center and experts in those areas ," Rudick said. "Can we do it? Sure, we could, but that's not in the best interest of the victim, so we're going to defer those to them."
The other significant change to the agreement is the clarification that all calls from or about charter schools -- Tulsa Public Schools sponsors three of them -- will be handled by Tulsa police.
Daryl Webster, deputy chief of the Tulsa Police Department, said the amendments to the campus police department's memorandum of understanding are "mutually beneficial."
"It played to the strengths of the campus police and to the strengths of the Tulsa Police Department, so it is something we were very glad to sign with campus police," Webster said.
In other business Monday: The school board got its first look at a proposal to declare two more vacant school buildings surplus in an effort to sell them. They are the former Bunche school building, 2703 N. Yorktown Place, and the now-closed Alcott Elementary School, 525 E. 46th St. North.
The proposal is slated for approval at the next regular board meeting, set for Nov. 5.
The school district has been engaged in efforts to sell many of the dozen or so facilities that have been vacated over the last year as part of the consolidation initiative known as Project Schoolhouse.
Andrea Eger 918-581-8470
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