OKLAHOMA CITY – The Asian District Cultural Association and Oklahoma City police hosted a community Q&A session together Wednesday morning, with district residents expressing frustration at public health, homelessness, and crime, but making little direct mention of the recent homicide that overshadowed the meeting.
Following the gruesome murder of Cap Nguyen earlier this month, residents of the Asian District have pushed for renewed conversations about public safety in the area. The Asian District Cultural Association’s monthly Public Safety Meetings are designed to allow residents to hold those kinds of important and pressing conversations directly with OKC police.
The July installment of the meeting series was held Wednesday morning at the popular Lee’s Sandwiches, offering a large space for the community to gather and pose their questions to police.
A social media post from the Asian District called the event “an opportunity to ask questions, share concerns, and discuss ways we can work together to keep the Asian District safe.”
‘An informal meeting with no agenda’
Inside Lee’s, a half dozen representatives of the OKCPD geared up to take questions from around 40 community members, most of them local business owners or community activists. The room was somewhat tense, and as waves of community members arrive for the meeting, Lee’s began to run out of chairs for them all.
Four uniformed police officers stood facing the rest of the room and began by mentioning the murder of Cap Nguyen and the general state of the homeless population of the Asian District as major concerns.
OKCPD Captain Valerie Littlejohn kicked off the meeting by calling it “an informal meeting with no agenda, just for you guys to ask whatever questions you have.”
For the next hour, community members posited questions about proper police response and accountability and alternative response options for mental health concerns. One community member asked what to do when a homeless person trespasses on her property, frightening her employees and behaving inappropriately in public.
“Not all homeless calls are criminal,” said Lieutenant David Dale, Supervisor of OKCPD’s Homeless Outreach Team.
Lt. Dale then described the process of police response to calls of trespassing vagrants, including details of misdemeanor and felony to help the community understand what warrants an arrest in those calls.
When it came to questions of how police respond to calls about mental health, Lt. Dale told the community that “all officers are CIT [Crisis Intervention Training] certified.”
‘We don’t have enough officers’
Major Dan Stewart of the OKCPD fielded most of the questions, and when a community member’s frustration with police response was echoed by three or four more people, he offered an answer.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have enough officers,” he said.
“Depending on who you talk to, we’re 300 to 600 officers under-staffed,” Stewart continued, citing Oklahoma City’s growth as a particular challenge. “As population increases, call volumes have increased. An officer might go from call to call for an entire 10-hour shift.”
Captain– soon to be Major– Jermaine Johnson commented as well on what he called a “precarious moment” for the city’s homeless population, reiterating that community members should call them any time they don’t feel safe or think a crime is being committed.
“We’re doing as much as we possibly can,” he said. “I don’t want you to think we’re just up here sitting on our hands.”
Captain Littlejohn spoke to the necessity of cooperation between police and neighborhoods, saying the police “want to end homelessness, but can’t do it on [their] own.” Littlejohn said, “these meetings are good because we [the police] can always find ways to improve.”
The uncertainty about what happens after such calls was the common chord sounded amongst the attendees, with community members and residents asking what they could do to alleviate the homelessness issue in the Asian District and what the police will do once they’re called.
The meeting ended with Lt. Dale offering the phone number of the Action Center, which he said is where community members should call about homeless people in their neighborhoods.
Chief Bacy not in attendance
Despite a social media post from an Asian District account claiming he would be there, OKCPD Chief Ron Bacy was not in attendance at this meeting.
Captain Littlejohn told Free Press that this was due to a miscommunication and the Chief’s having a prior engagement scheduled at the same time as the community event.
Captain Littlejohn indicated that future events may take place later in the day, perhaps at 7:00pm, so that more members of the community can attend.
‘Clear expectations’
Ward 2 City Councilman James Cooper was also not present at Wednesday’s meeting, but provided some input to Free Press in a text exchange after.
“Currently we’re asking residents to contact OKC’s Action Center to report homeless residents,” Cooper said, “and we need to provide clear expectations about what happens once a resident starts this process.”
He said that he would like to see representatives of the City’s Key to Home initiative and the Mobile Integrated Health team at future district meetings to provide a clearer understanding of how homeless residents can be matched to supportive services and housing without needing a police response.
To that end, Cooper said the purpose of calling the Action Center is “so the City of OKC has knowledge of anyone experiencing homelessness on the [Classen] corridor. That’s not happening right now.”
He also expressed hope that future community meetings on the topic of public safety can include more direct involvement from City officials, specifically top police leadership.
“I’ve asked our City Manager’s office to host a meeting with Asian District leadership with OKCPD Police Chief Ron Bacy,” Cooper said. “This morning’s meeting was a step in that direction.”
Tyler Smothers is a local, an Okie, and a poet living in Oklahoma City with his wife, Sadye, and their animals, Toby and Oscar.
He teaches medieval history and literature to 7th graders and loves everything from "Canterbury Tales" to "Mrs. Dalloway."
