Tulsa Police Officers Begin To Receive COVID-19 Vaccine

200 more Tulsa Police employees are getting the COVID-19 vaccine Monday and Tuesday.

Tulsa Police has about 1,000 employees. They say around 200 employees have already been vaccinated, so after Tuesday, they’ll be about halfway there.

TPD said OSU Medical Center offered 200 doses of the vaccine for Tulsa Police. TPD said they sent out a sign-up list and all the appointments filled up immediately.

They said OSU Medical Center nurses vaccinated 12 employees an hour Monday and will do it again Tuesday.

Police say they especially want dispatchers vaccinated because they are all confined in one office. They are also focusing on frontline officers, who are in the public every day.

"This is a huge gamechanger for us. We knew from the start of this pandemic that the vaccine was going to be a big step toward the end of the pandemic. Of course, the pandemic, just like everyone's way of life has changed. The police departments operations had to change. This is a big step back towards normal operations for us,” said Captain Mark Ohnesorge with Tulsa Police.

TPD said they do plan to get the rest of their employees vaccinated once more are offered.

OSU Medical Center said they plan to do this for Tulsa firefighters as well.