Chat With The Chief: Tulsa Police Chief Dennis Larsen Talks About New Role, Priorities For The Department

It's a big day, Chief Dennis Larsen officially takes over his new role as head of the Tulsa Police Department.

Chief Larsen joined News On 6 this morning to talk about why he wanted the role after 45 years with TPD, and what the priorities of the department will be going forward.

LeAnne: Why did you want this position because, for decades, a lot of people will be saying, "Hey, this is trying to transition to retirement," but you still have some work to do.

Larsen: I still have a passion for the job. And I've always told everybody the day I get up, and I feel like I just don't want to go to work. This sort of thinking about retirement. I love this department. I love working with the men and women of the Department. I've been graced to be part of some of the specialty units throughout my 40-plus years of career. And I find it still exciting, exhilarating. And the mission that we are. Our number one thing has always been the safety of the public, the citizens of Tulsa. Because when we know that when the public feels safe, and the community thrives, then our culture as Tulsa thrives. We're such a mixed culture across our city. And when that happens, the city grows. And so public safety will always be the first priority of my office and also of the entire department.

LeAnne: Was law enforcement always what you wanted to go into when you were younger?

Larsen: I think so. And the main reason is that you never know what day-to-day is going to bring. A year ago when they called me about the derecho they woke me up in the middle of the night to say we're calling staff in while I got dressed in my uniform. I googled the word derecho to figure out that it was a tornado, basically a tornado, level winds in a straight direction, right, and how much damage it did across the city. But I would have never thought when I came into the department, I'd worked my way through a pandemic, where modern science has stopped other viruses when they hit the US in the past two decades. And so the word pandemic, that's something that happened in the 1900s, not not, not ours, and yet we found ourselves cheap Franklin I did on the third floor in the command of the police department often being the only two people in the building because we felt it was important that the officer saw their leadership there. If we were asking them to go out, go up and knock on doors and astronomical Hmong calls. You can't sit at home and not be and not lead.

LeAnne: What are some of your priorities now I know that you and Chief Franklin have been working in tandem over the last few months. You've seen so many chiefs come and go, talk to us about the priorities right now.

Larsen: Public safety is always number one. Officer safety is just right up there with it. Every man and woman that worked for the city of Tulsa in the police department needs to feel they are the best equipped and best trained, and they're going to go home at the end of their shift to their loved ones. And then the next priority is because of our officer shortage, we are 143 officers down. We are transitioning, a lot of technology is being brought on board to allow our officers to work more quickly and more efficiently. The real-time information center is crucial to that one of your stories you ran this morning talked about the flood camera system. We want to grow that but we also want to grow with our partners throughout the city like QuikTrip organization who we are working with to get access to all the cameras and all their stores. So when we need to look in the possibility of a victim or a suspect, we can log in and then see what they're seeing in their store if they're having problems.