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Resident alleges discrepancies in TEAM diversion warrant data, calls for audit
Summary
At the Oklahoma County commissioners meeting, resident Carol Knight said open-records requests and warrants data raise questions about the TEAM diversion program’s participant tracking and court appearances and urged an independent audit.
Carol Knight, a resident, told the Oklahoma County commissioners during public comment that she has not received responses to open-records requests about participants in the county's TEAM diversion program and urged officials to examine the program's warrants and court-appearance data.
Knight said she and a volunteer research team obtained the program's quarterly report and reviewed warrants issued in the third quarter of last year. "We found 329 warrants that came from the TEAM list," she said. "We found that 251 of those made 0 court appearances between release and failure to appear. That's a 75%." She also said the TEAM report listed 235 failures to appear; her group counted more.
The nut graf: Knight said the discrepancies led her to request that the county provide participant records and suggested an outside audit if the county will not release additional information. "If you don't want us to look at it, then maybe you need to be hiring someone outside to audit that program and see, is this a good use of taxpayer dollars?" she said.
In her remarks Knight listed alleged offenses tied to people she said were being released to the TEAM program, including trafficking fentanyl, domestic abuse, child abuse, violations of protective orders, animal cruelty, weapons offenses, and burglary. She also said some people cited in the warrants did not live in Oklahoma County and named several states and Mexico as origins.
The transcript record shows Knight repeatedly asked county offices for records and said she would re-send her request. She offered to provide printed copies of her team's warrant list to county officials and others in attendance. The transcript does not show any commissioner response to Knight's substantive claims during the public-comment period.
Ending: The commissioners' agenda proceeded with routine business after public comment. Knight's requests and her offer of an outside audit were on the public record; the transcript does not record any formal county action in response to her request during this meeting.
