By Sgt. Mark Nelson
FOP Vice President Mark Nelson in Oklahoma City, Thursday October, 13 2016. Photo By Steve Gooch, The Oklahoman
Nearly everyone agrees Oklahoma’s criminal justice system has problems. Overcrowding at detention facilities, and a lack of attention and resources for helping people with addiction and mental health problems threaten public safety and lower trust in government and law enforcement.
The Oklahoma City Fraternal Order of Police (OKC FOP) agrees our laws and systems need reform. However, State Questions 780 and 781, which would change our criminal code, create too many unintended consequences, threatening public safety and making it harder for officers to do their jobs.
In fact, these measures will hurt efforts we know work. Look at drug courts, which provide offenders a chance to get treatment and help getting their lives back on track, rather than putting them behind bars. We support these kinds of alternate paths. As it stands now, people who face long prison sentences are more motivated to take the option of drug court.
Reducing crimes from felonies to misdemeanors could encourage people to take their chances with a few months in county jail, rather than the time and effort of treatment. Offenders would miss out on learning how to solve or manage underlying issues making them more prone to commit additional crime. We anticipate lawbreakers would end up spending more time in jail, and then end up right back in custody after release. Cycling people through police stations and the courts clogs the judicial system and wastes taxpayers’ money.
Because most misdemeanor sentences are served in county jails rather than state penitentiaries, reclassifying crimes outlined in SQ 780 and 781 would shift the burden of housing inmates away from the state to cash-strapped counties. At the Oklahoma County jail, this could worsen the overcrowding and other problems that threaten the safety of inmates and law enforcement officers.
A larger issue is how these measures would deal with repeat offenders and violent criminals.
Under SQ 780 and 781, misdemeanors remain misdemeanors, no matter how often someone commits the same crime. So someone who gets arrested 10 times with meth or heroin would still face only a minor charge and a short sentence. And investigators and prosecutors would have less leverage with which to convince criminals to give information about more dangerous people and schemes.
Another problem is what these changes would mean for people who commit crimes with guns. Currently, anyone who commits a felony while armed could face another felony charge for carrying a gun. But if the original crime is reclassified as a misdemeanor, prosecutors lose the ability to include a firearms charge. This makes it harder to catch and keep truly harmful people off the streets. And it makes things more dangerous for the 1,000 police officers OKC FOP represents.
The OKC FOP supports taking a look at our criminal justice system and fixing what doesn’t work. We believe treatment for drug addicts and people with mental illness is important for lowering the crime rate and keeping people safe. But we urge you to vote no on SQ 780 and 781, because they create too many loopholes and take away too many vital tools for protecting the public.
Sgt. Mark Nelson is a 15-year veteran of the Oklahoma City Police Department. He is vice president of the Oklahoma City Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 123.
