Journalist Stephanie Landaverde (OSU)
Faith Gregory from OBU is the author of freshman bill OBU-501. The purpose of this bill is to turn the Oklahoma City part time SWAT team into a full time SWAT team. Gregory wrote this bill because as a criminal justice major, she saw the disparity and the stress cops undergo in their careers. “It’s unfair to ask them to work two jobs”, Gregory told me. Gregory presented her bill with lovely sparkly nails (see below) that appear to be somewhere between blue and purple. Tulsa already has a full time SWAT team, and the inspiration behind increasing the SWAT presence in Oklahoma City was Dallas. Dallas implemented this to lower crime rates in their city and it worked! Karlene Stelling from OSU submitted a hostile amendment to change the scope of the bill from an Oklahoma City focus to a statewide one. Rather than turning the Oklahoma City part time SWAT team into a full time team, she amended it to include all current SWAT team members in the state of Oklahoma. Stelling works with the OSU Department of Wellness that has worked with the SWAT team for a couple years now and this experience is what led her to make the amendment. Gregory’s bill had provided a $45,000 budget for the Oklahoma City SWAT team, but upon further investigation delegates found that the OKCPD “operation” budget would be more than enough to fulfill the financial obligations of this bill. Gregory’s original $45,000 budget is still included as a means to provide for SWAT training. Removing the full time component from the bill and changing it into a state-wide all current SWAT members made the bill dilatory due to the title. The bill has been tabled and will be seen again tomorrow morning after it has passed through committees.
