Thread by @SoonerReporter

THREAD: Last fall, I reported a series of stories with @QuintonChand about mental health and policing that made use of several records obtained through #FOI requests. We spent nearly a year reporting and examining records. Here’s more about how we did it. #sunshineweek 1/

@QuintonChand But first, I think it's important that you understand why we invested so much time and energy in this work: People in crisis are dying at the hands of police. 2/

@QuintonChand Bennie Edwards, Dustin Pigeon and Isaiah Lewis were fatally shot by police in Oklahoma. All of them were in crisis and all of them were killed by officers who had not been trained in crisis intervention, which is specialized mental health training. And they are not alone. 3/

@QuintonChand We started our reporting by requesting data that we knew the department's Crisis Intervention Team was tracking, including annual breakdowns that show the number of mental health calls and how officers responded. Here's the 2020 breakdown. 4/

@QuintonChand We analyzed 7 years of data because that's how long @OKCPD's current tracking system has been in place. We also analyzed monthly data from 2019 and 2020. We used the annual reports to create the graph below. (The interactive version is here bit.ly/2NpInwq.) 5/

@QuintonChand @OKCPD We studied hundreds of pages of incident reports from these calls to better understand what they’re like and how officers are responding to people in crisis. You can view some of those reports and read about what we learned from them here: bit.ly/2GFhJMb 6/

@QuintonChand @OKCPD Most incident reports are public record but late enforcement agencies often deny records that are related to ongoing investigations. Here is @OKCPD's request form that you can use to request reports: bit.ly/3ttJXgd 7/

@QuintonChand @OKCPD Not all of our requests were fulfilled. We wanted to know how many of those calls resulted in death. But @OKCPD does not track how many people with a mental illness have been killed or injured while in custody. So, we asked to review the department's use-of-force reports. 8/

@QuintonChand @OKCPD .@OKCPD refused my requests to review use-of-force reports claiming that those reports are personnel records, which are except from Oklahoma's Open Records Act. Here is the specific statute they cited: bit.ly/3bLUEoe 9/

@QuintonChand @OKCPD We also interviewed many sources including the Capt. who led @OKCPD's CIT unit and an OKC man with bipolar who has been picked up by police at least 50 times. Here's how it all came together bit.ly/36z57Bi Thanks for making it to the end/

If you have other questions about how we did this work or about public records, I’m happy to chat. Comment or DM me and I’ll do my best to answer.

Ok, that’s really the end this time.