Robberies Surge in 2016, Ending Downward Trend in Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tulsa experienced a surge of robberies in 2016, ending a five-year downward trend.

Tulsa Police Department data showed that over 1,000 robberies were reported from the start of January through November, already 19 percent more than last year’s total of 854 robberies.

December’s robbery count won’t be available until January, the Tulsa World reported.

The spike halted the city’s annual decrease dating back to at least 2010, when nearly 1,400 robberies occurred.

Sgt. Brandon Watkins, who heads the police department’s robbery unit, said he can’t explain why 2016 was such “a tough year.” He said the reversal isn’t enough to predict whether a new trend of increased robberies can be expected in the future.

“It could just be a correction,” Watkins said. “Things have been going pretty good over the last few years, but anytime you have a nice long down period, eventually it’s going to correct and go back up a little ways.”

The sergeant said robberies also tend to spike in the summer, partly due to the fact that children are on summer break and that the hot weather can possibly bring out a person’s “inner robber.” The highest recorded number of robberies in 2016 was between June and September.

Watkins said the increase could be because of understaffing and overtime in the robbery unit, making it difficult to keep the clearance rate above national average.

“If I had 20 detectives, I bet we could get close to 100 percent,” he said, referring to this year’s robbery clearance rate at around 46 percent. “We don’t have those bodies, and those bodies don’t exist on the Tulsa Police Department.”