'We The People' Meets With Tulsa County Sheriff's Office

Members of the citizen group "We The People Oklahoma" met with Tulsa County Undersheriff Rick Weigel. It was the first meeting between the sheriff's office and the group.

The meeting between Undersheriff Rick Weigel and We The People Oklahoma's Marq Lewis lasted a little under an hour, and both sides said it was positive.

We the People gave the Undersheriff a list of recommendations they would like to see made at the sheriff's office based on the grand jury's investigation. Those, of course, include training records being up to date, changes to the reserve program, and changes to internal affairs program.

Lewis said out of the 46 recommendations, their top priority is creating a six-member citizen task force to handle internal affairs investigations. 

"The most important thing is a citizen review board," Lewis said. "That's something we want to look at. We talked about that. They were open to it."

11/3/2015 Related Story: The Frontier: 'We The People' Presents Reform Plan To TCSO

The sheriff's office says some legal issues would need to be worked out but, say it's an idea that's a possibility in some form.

"In some places, it's worked well, other places, they haven't worked so well. There's a lot of moving parts in how these are set up," said attorney Scott Wood.

Read The Recommendations From "We The People Oklahoma"

We the People also wants every deputy wearing a body camera. The sheriff's office says they've wanted that for ages, but it was a matter of finding the money.

"The sheriff's office is all for body cameras," Wood said.

The sheriff's office says some of the recommendations are already in place; some can go into place fast, others - will take some thought.
Both sides agreed this was a good first step toward creating something everyone can be proud of.

"It just shows the will of the people will always win, if we stay peaceful and respectful," said Marq Lewis of We The People Oklahoma. "We just want what's right. We both, Undersheriff Weigel, wants what's right. I think he wants to restore order back into the county along with the public trust and we want the same thing too."

Both sides have agreed to meet again December 10. At that time, they'll go through the list and talk about what's already been implemented, what could be implemented - and what's not such a good idea.

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