City Council Votes On Police Department's Budget After Hearing From OKC Residents

The City Council in Oklahoma City considered a more than $225 million police department budget.

But, not before they gave the public time to weigh in, share their experiences interacting with the police, and talking about whether to defund the department.

For hours, constituents spoke to their city council members

Many remarks supported the idea of defunding the police and reallocating portions of the police budget.

As the list of speakers ended, Mayor David Holt opened the floor to the council.

City Councilwoman JoBeth Hamon focused her points on how this money needs to be spent on people in need.

"I will not be able to vote on this because we are continually giving people the one tool thinking this is going to fix all of our social ills," said Hamon. 

As for council members James Cooper and Nikki Nice, both discussed the history of the black and brown lives.

City Council members Larry McAtee and Todd Stone were not in favor of defunding the police department.

"We continue to request training; we continue to request different facets of jobs we can change," said Stone.

There were moments during the meeting that callers used racial slurs and inappropriate language, but they were quickly shut down.

In the end, the police department budget passed 6 to 1 with Cooper and Nice abstaining.