Chat With The Chief: Protecting Investigations While Keeping Public Informed

Each month, we invite the Tulsa Police Chief to stop by and talk with us about some of the top issues facing the department.

On Thursday morning, Chief Wendell Franklin joined LeAnne Taylor to discuss recent events.

The death of Owasso High School student Nex Benedict has gained national attention. Some people were frustrated about how slow the investigation was progressing. While that's not Chief Franklin's department, he shared his perspective on how investigations work.

How do you protect an investigation while also informing the public?

"We don't want to release all the information, because there is still an investigation going on, typically. So, you know, we're very cautious about what information we release. And certainly in this incident in Owasso, you have juvenile involve so those also have its own measure of anonymity that you have to keep with those investigations. And so I feel for the Owasso community, the police chief there. And this just goes back to, we should not be making assumptions and putting out information that's false. That really impedes investigations and really makes the community more upset. This is already a tragic situation," Chief Franklin said.