Norman City Council To Vote On Police Department's Budget During Tuesday Night's Meeting

Norman city councilors will be discussing cutting another $500,000 from the police department's budget. The Norman Police Department said that could eliminate five officer positions.

This comes after the Norman City Council voted to shave $865,000 off the police department's budget last year.

City Councilwoman Brandi Studlet said the money would go toward funding a mental health crisis unit.

“It’s just learning how to reimagine what policing looks like, and there is more than one person a citizen should be able to call to get help in our city,” she said.

The Norman Fraternal Order of Police is against trying something different at this time, and they said there are not enough police officers in the first place.

“At times we only have eight patrol officers on duty trying their hardest. To serve a city of 125,000 citizens, and almost 200 square miles,” said Norman police Maj. Chad Vincent.

Norman City Council meets at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.