Candidates For Tulsa Police Chief Share Their Vision For The Department

Four candidates for Tulsa’s next police chief shared their outlook on how they would handle the job.

They shared their vision for the department and met with citizens one on one. The mayor said he has spent a lot of time this week interviewing the four candidates for this job. He also wanted to make sure the community was a part of the process.

Deputy Chief Jonathan Brooks has worked with TPD more than 20 years. He focused his introduction on the community programs he has been a part of and in some cases helped create them, which helped build relationships between the community and police. He brought up Project Trust, a program that allows Tulsa police officers to go into schools and build friendships with students. He also talked about his work on the Tulsa Sobering Center.

"I firmly believe that every Tulsan should live in safety. They should be able to live free of the fear of crime," said Brooks.

Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish has 23 years on the department and said building trust in the community by finding creative ways to connect with the public is important to him. He spoke about his loyalty to the Tulsa Police Department for giving him the opportunity to be an officer despite his type-1 diabetes diagnosis and his belief in TPD to be an example for departments across the country. 

"I am a big fan of one on one and capitalizing on those one on one interactions," said Dalgleish.

Major Wendell Franklin has been with TPD more than 23 years. He said he lost his mother to an act of violence at a young age and found his passion for policing years after that. He said he wants TPD to be transparent by allowing the public to see the department's crime numbers and research.

"We are going to have to start using data to drive our decisions. We are going to use data to address crime and use data to allocate our man power properly. We are going to use technology to better police. We are going to show you our numbers. We are going to be more transparent. We have to. You are going to see the data," said Franklin.

Deputy Chief Dennis Larsen has more than 40 years on the job and said if he became police chief, he would start with a complete review of the department from top to bottom. He said he would create a use of force review board and require police body cams to be turned on all the time.

"My officers will know that service to every member of the Tulsa community is vital to our success," said Larsen.

Current Chief Chuck Jordan will be retiring February 1. The mayor said if he hasn't made the decision by then, he will ask an interim chief to fill the gap.