Tulsa Police Interim Chief: Significant Changes Coming To Department

By Emory Bryan, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- The Tulsa Police department is taking action against officers indicted Tuesday in a corruption case, while looking into new allegations against officers who have not yet been named. 

7/20/2010 Related Story: Five Tulsa Police Officers Indicted In Corruption Probe

Interim Chief Chuck Jordan said significant changes were coming inside the department to address concerns raised by the investigation.

Jordan said the federal investigation uncovered cases of misconduct, theft and lying in court documents that have not yet been prosecuted, but could be, against officers who have not yet been publicly identified.

"But the investigation did uncover some other problems that we have, that we are going to address," he said.

Jordan said other, still unnamed officers are implicated in issues that didn't rise to the level of federal charges.

"We've got some indicators of officers misconduct, had some thefts and had some lying in court documents and those issues are going to be addressed by our department," he said.

While the federal court heard dozens of accusations against the five officers, their chief says the Feds told him the grand jury investigation is done and no more indictments are expected.

"However they did indicate that if more information came out as a result of these trials and as a result of these indictments, there could be spin off charges filed, but they don't see any in the future right now," Jordan said.

Six Tulsa Police officers are now charged in the corruption investigation. Those still on the force are on leave with pay, but the Chief says he's checking to see if their paychecks can be cut off soon.

"I certainly want to know what information we have about wrongdoing," Jordan said. "The problem is we can't conduct an administrative investigation until the criminal proceeding is finished, so in a way that kind of hogties us to keep us from being able to do anything, but that's part of due process, that's what they deserve and that's what their legal rights are."

Jordan said he will announce significant policy changes to the officers Friday.

Meanwhile he's meeting next week with city legal team to see if the internal police investigation of the officers is enough to fire them, before the criminal case is resolved.

7/20/2010 Related Story: U.S. Attorney's Office: Two Indicted TPD Officers A Threat To Community