Increased violence among adolescents prompts need for change

School Resource Officer Sgt. Mike Harris presented a video to the City Council Monday night that showed a disturbing confrontation among juveniles at the cove on March 9.

The youths were out of control, attacking bystanders, pulling one victim from the back of a pickup truck, many drunk, all of them disorderly as they went on a rampage.

The event began with a post inviting everyone to a birthday celebration at the cove.

It isn’t an everyday occurrence, but it could happen every weekend, Harris said – especially during the summer.

The police are hampered by a law that states they can’t arrest juveniles.

“We can detain them and hold them for their parents or juvenile services,” he said.

Harris is tasked with educating the public, parents and students about the violence and the need to take action to get it under control.

Police Chief David Bryning told the city council that violence among young people who are out on the streets late at night is increasing. Many of the juveniles are drunk, violent and some are armed. Few of them show respect for law enforcement, cursing them as the officers drive by, making obscene gestures.

“This has become a huge issue. We are having lot more frequent, more violent interactions with juveniles,” he said.

A lot of the areas of concern is the cove.

“As soon as it gets dark they gather at Braum’s and go back and forth to the cove, taking back alleys. Residents can’t walk their dogs at night, or go for a walk with their wives,” Bryning said.

“I worked over 30 hours Friday and Saturday night because of these issues. If we don’t change something, something major is going to happen.”

Changing the curfew for the adolescents would help.

The current curfew for young people is one minute past 11 p.m. until 6 a.m. on any Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday and one minute past midnight until 6 a.m. on any Saturday or Sunday.

Bryning says the ordinance causes confusion among officers trying to enforce it because it doesn’t mention Friday.

He asked the council to change the curfew to 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., seven days a week.

“It’s simpler, not confusing,” Bryning said. “Our intent is not to hammer the young people, our intent is to get control of the violence and alcohol abuse.”

He said there are legitimate reasons for juveniles to be out after curfew – work, family and school events.

“You just have to trust us to use our common sense when enforcing the curfew,” he said.

Vice Mayor James Hickman, who supervised the meeting in Mayor Todd Warren’s absence, said he agreed with the chief in that nothing good happens after midnight.

However, he had an alternative proposal: Sunday through Thursday, 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday 11 p.m.

“With the idea that we can change it,” he said.

The Council tabled the item for the next meeting so members can study the issue and to get public comments.

Bryning emphasized that he is concerned about public safety as well as the safety of his officers.

Combining dispatch services approved The Council signed a Memorandum of Understanding Monday night, approving combining the dispatch services of Eufaula, Checotah and the county.

The MOU agrees that Checotah will “maintain full governing authority of its services, including, but not limited to: personnel, policies and procedures, equipment and facilities.”

The combined service will cost an estimated $117,560 beginning April 19, 2024 through June 30, 2024.

Division of the costs will be based upon percentage of volume of calls – with the county’s share 41 percent, Eufaula’s 32 percent.

Jones said without the agreement, the city could be paying $200,000 a year, and that doesn’t include maintenance and upgrade of equipment.

“The combined dispatching will save us money and it’s more efficient,” he said.

City considering Indigenous Broadband Solutions Indigenous Broadband Solutions wants to partner with Eufaula to provide affordable wireless internet services to the underserved population of the city and the surrounding area.

Jones said funding for the project would come from ARPA grant dollars through the Oklahoma Broadband Office.

The proposed service is wireless internet service delivered through a radio network that would provide 100Mbps service to Eufaula households. This type of service would eliminate the need for underground or overhead cabling, thus reducing the costs for installation, maintenance, and operation, providing a high-quality service at a much lower price.

Two representatives of the service spoke to the Council.

Jones recommended signing a letter of intent and follow through with the grant application.

“If we are successful in receiving 100% grant funding then we could move forward with the The network design provides both a Municipal Network operating on the 4.9Ghz band and a Public Network operating on the 5.8Ghz UNII-3 band.

The core network connectivity is located on a tower at the Water Tank on Swadley Drive.