The Tulsa Police Department (TPD) is the principal law enforcement agency for the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States. It is nationally accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies It is the second largest municipal law enforcement agency in Oklahoma.
TPD was officially organized in 1907 after the City of Tulsa was incorporated. However, informally, TPD existed as early as 1905.
Organizational structure
The Chief of Police supervises three deputy chiefs who are each in charge of a bureau. A bureau consist of three to four divisions. Each division is supervised by a major. The Chief of Police reports to the mayor.
Tulsa Police Department
Chief's Office
Administration Bureau
Information and Technical Services
Training Division
Headquarters
Forensic Lab
Investigations Bureau
Detective Division
Special Investigations Division
Fleet Operations
Operations Bureau
Mingo Valley Division
Gilcrease Division
Riverside Division
Special Operations Division
Support units include: Air Support K9 Special Operations Team (SOT) Bike Patrol Motorcycle Patrol Bomb Squad Special Investigations Unit Cyber-Crimes Unit Dive Team
Personnel
Tulsa Police department employs personnel from a diverse range of racial, educational and socioeconomic backgrounds. Proportionally, there is significantly greater representation of Caucasian, Native-American and male employees in the department compared with the general population of Tulsa.
Non-sworn Personnel
Staff generally require a GED or high school diploma. Specialized experience and training is also required for specific roles, such as administrative assistants.
Sworn-officers
Sworn-officers are required to have at least a four-year bachelor's degree to apply, generally with a background in forensic science or criminal justice. TPD has no inbound transfer program for existing law enforcement officers so all candidates must complete a six-month training course at the Tulsa Police Academy regardless of previous law enforcement experience.
In 2015 The department had 752 sworn-officers with an independent recommendation from Cincinnati University that the city hire an additional 206 officers because, for some time, "The police department is operating at a serious staffing deficiency." In order to meet federally recommended staffing levels to manage shift fatigue, it was recommended that the city should have 1,264 sworn-officers and should more than quadruple the number of civilian administrative staff in order to satisfy standard staffing practices. Funding has remained stagnant with funding levels for 2015 of US$96 million to the same total in 2018. As of 2019, there is a projection of 913 sworn officers and 50 administrative staff by the end of 2019 financial year.
Despite the shortage of staff, off-duty sworn-officers of the TPD are highly sought after as private security guards within the region, servicing various businesses from municipal transport services, local hospitals and banks, to convenience stores such as QuikTrip. Many officers have been moonlighting for several decades due to the lucrative private security industry.
Chief of Police
Wendell Franklin was appointed police chief of the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma by Mayor G. T. Bynum On February 1, 2020, following the retirement of the previous chief Chuck Jordan. Chief Franklin is the city's 40th police chief and the city's 1st African-American police chief. Chief Franklin has been with the department for 23 years and is known for his attempts to lower crime rate and increase community relations. Chief Franklin graduated the FBI National Academy in 2016 and returned to Tulsa.