Business Owners Learn About Tulsa Police Homicide Unit At Leadership Event

More than 100 Green County business owners and community leaders got to learn all of the ins and outs of the Tulsa Police Homicide Unit on Wednesday.

The lunch and learn event was put on by Ascend Leadership to teach area business owners leadership skills.

Veteran Tulsa Police Homicide Detective Jason White was asked to be the guest speaker.

His unit has almost a 100-percent solve rate. He said that's the result of good leadership skills like being able to work as a team, taking responsibility, and always being willing to learn in order to get better.

Detective White lives a different life than just about every person he spoke to at the event. They all own or work for local businesses, while detective White works around the clock solving murders.

But White said they use the same skills any business owner would and it starts with picking the right people for the job.

“It is not necessarily what someone looks like on paper. What we look at is, we look at people that are trainable, people that are willing to work as team members and be a part of that team. Teamwork makes the dream work and that is one of the keys to our success,” said White.

White said just like running a business, solving murders requires solving the puzzle without all the pieces and thinking outside the box.

Lindel Fields, the co-founder of Ascend Leadership, said along with their leadership courses, they host quarterly lunches to give their students a broader look at leadership.

“He has a leadership model for doing the business he does and one of our students, Bryan Smith, has a relationship with Jason. So through that connection, we felt like it would be a good idea to bring him in and pour into those that are a part of our program,” said Fields.

White said having relationships with your community is also important. The Tulsa Homicide Unit is featured on A&E's "The First 48," which White said is valuable to their department and shows people what they do.

“I think with any police officer, they need to be somewhat of an ambassador to the profession. Especially since we are out there already, I think we owe it to the public to be accessible and to answer questions when we can as to what we are about,” said White.