There are some wonderful comments on here. Thanks!

Please remember.. the 771 is the latest # of sworn officers available to serve tomorrow (including patrol, homicide, SID, traffic, admin, etc). The 814 number is what the city counts from the payroll-- which includes officers not available right now b/c of light duty, family leave, military obligations, etc.

I also requested the police sign-in sheets from UDE, UDN and UDSW to literally count the officers on routine patrol/answering service calls during each shift.12 day and 20 night is the number of officers (not supervisors) required for minimum manning levels @ each division per shift. I found many shifts only covered by what's considered minimal. (And, of course, not all those 12/20 are able to answer calls the entire shift if they're booking someone into jail, working a traffic fatality, handling an emergency, etc.)

I just wanted a number of how many are really serving the city of Tulsa over-all... and the bottom line of how many are actually patroling on the streets.

Tulsa2000... you mentioned the 1970s vs today. There is a study that compares the two.. and from my understanding it is about the same number of officers and triple the calls. But I coudn't get my hands on that study before the story aired. Anyone know where I can get that?

I'm so glad this story has started a conversation. I continually hear from officers they are short-staffed (the only one in their squad meeting or one of only a few covering a huge area). That's why I decided to investigate. And remember.. I can't cram every single detail into one story. This is the first of, I'm sure, many investigations into the shortage on shifts and in departments.

If you have any questions.. feel free to email me. cmorrison@ktul.com Cindy Morrison

A statistic I have heard often is that we have nearly the same number of officers on staff as in the 70's (that was probably when we were at 700) but the call load has tripled. I agree there are not enough officers answering calls. I just think there are a lot of officers doing things (or not doing things) that don't contriubte much to public safety and service. It's an easy answer to hire more officers, and I do agree we need more people, but if we don't address the organizational issues, then we'll have to same problem in a few short years.

771 officers are not on the streets. It is drastically lower! We have 771 officers all together. The ones not taking the normal, everyday calls are Detectives (about 200, maybe?), supervisors, specialty units (horses, narcotics), the training division, the Chief's section, internal affairs, light duty, military, and administration.

How about you get the numbers of the officers in the actual squads at each division that are taking calls? 4 squads of about 10-14 officers (all with different days off, never all working at once) at each division for each shift.

At UDE the minimum manning level for the times of 4pm-2am is 20 officers. That area spreads from Sheridan to B.A/Catoosa/Wagoner County and 111th St. north to the 36 St. N. How many miles is that? What is the population of that area? Is 20 officers really enough? NO!!

Lets also think of the rise in call load in these years. 10 years ago, not everyone had alarms on their houses and businesses that the police have to answer. Not everyone had cell phones to report every little thing that they see, as it is happening. I think the change in times alone deserves more officers.

That's why I think Cindy left a huge portion of the story out, especially if she had been researching for months. There are other people "on the streets" but those scary numbers are actually the ones being assigned calls from the public. We have motorcycles, traffic units (they do take wreck calls) on the streets daily as well. You can go to tpdd.org and look at where in the organization of the department, officers are assigned (probably pretty outdated data though). It doesn't break out supervisors and there are a lot of supervisors that take calls, but I think policy is that they aren't assigned calls for squad superviors, other units are handled differently. I'm just talking about the guys/gals out there answering the publics call for help.

I totally agree the Mayor has been ALL talk and NO action when it has come to public safety, that has been a huge disappointment.

I agree we need more officers or some major changes within the police department. Our crime is soaring and nothing seems in different than before Taylor was voted in. Her main campaign focus was on decreasing our crime and putting more officers on the street. I realize it might take time but I think it is no longer a main priority for her. She seems to busy with other agendas! We need improvement quickly. Tulsa is no longer a safe city to live in.

OK now if you use tulsa2000 numbers and Cindy's numbers that leaves 579 officers. HMMMM that is alot of supervisors, so maybe they aren't all supervisors some may be detectives well you cant count those because they dont respond to 911 calls, you cant count the SWAT team or any other specialty groups either because they dont respond to 911 calls so REALLY Mayor how many officers do you have actually have working our streets? No wonder there are so many crimes committed each day here in Tulsa.

Well, according to the story, if day shift and graveyard's minimum is 12 officers and third shift (overlaps into graveyard) is 20, then that puts 44 officers, minimum for each division, three divisions, totalling 132 officers a day that are on the street, but at any given time, it could be as little as 36 officers patrolling and taking 911 calls in the ENTIRE CITY! Pretty scary huh?

If Cindy wants to really talk about where the 771 officers are, let's talk about the supervisors! No one wants to talk about that. I'm not knocking them personally, they took their tests and got promoted, but it is the structure of the department, it's very supervisor heavy and very worker bee light. That's what their study will show, we need more officers taking calls and on the streets, but they will likely discover, we might have enough to do that, we just need to restructure the workload. It that actually happened, I'd say the study was money well spent.

I also was walked in as my house was being robbed. One officer showed up. And what I dont get is while one officer showed up for a burgulary but if there is a traffic stop you will have two to three show up. And the mayor is doing a "STUDY" well HOW MUCH is this "STUDY" that EVERYONE already knows we need more officers on "PATROL" is gonna cost? The study which will take who knows how long, will more than pay for 2-3 officers salary for a year. And there is NO WAY that there is over 700 officers on the street patroling. What I would like to know is the actually number of officers that are responding to calls. I was also told by an officer when I stopped one and asked them how long it would be before I would hear anything about my robbery and he said "Sir, if there isnt a solid lead to go on then its going to the bottom of the file. Because there are more robberies than the detectives can follow up on." Which I believe because I only recieved ONE phone call from the detective that was with my case and that call was because I had called him with information that I had gathered myself. So what are these 700 PLUS officers actually DOING?

Thanks channel 8 for the story. It outlines another failure of Mayor Taylor. She's too busy focusing on all the pretty 'extras' for the city and neglecting the necessities. Just like Savage & LaFortune before her - it's the good ol' boy network that has their hand in politics & forgets the average citizen & their needs.

Would have loved to have heard the clip, but the music was just too much.