Police Chief: TPD to focus on officers' physical, mental wellness

Tahlequah Police Chief Nate King updated the public on what's happening within his department during a Tuesday, Jan. 21 chat session.

King said they are working on the 2025 training schedule at the moment and they have over 150 hours of continuing education slated for the police department.

"Some of our focuses this year are going to be physical and mental wellness of our officers, use of force always is a focus, and then maintenance - first aid, Narcan, recertifications for Taser, field sobriety, things like that," King said. "We have multiple trainings scheduled each month for the year other than the month of November. November is a virtual month for us so it will be all online trainings."

Capt. Randy Tanner is currently working on ordinances and policies dealing with TPD's wrecker rotation. King said the goal is to have something ready by the next, or March's, Tahlequah City Council meeting.

Additionally, King is working with Tahlequah's city planner on a transportation safety action plan.

"Myself, along with several other city employees, county officials, Tahlequah BEST are coming together and you'll see some things coming from us from my homework for that group that will probably spark some new initiatives within the police department," King said.

Officers Brad Baker and Ohavyah Soto recorded their first Tuesday Traffic Tips video, which will be released sometime in February. King said the video will coincide with TPD's monthly Traffic Safety Initiatives for 2025.

"So be looking for that first video," he said. "It's going to be dealing with yielding to emergency vehicles - or vehicles on the shoulder with their hazards on bascially. Whether it be a police car, an ambulance, fire truck, even a personal vehicle that has flashers on and what you should do."

Performance evaluations are being worked on as the city has changed their procedure on that. King said the evaluations are typically done in June each year but those will be done this month.

"We also have somethings in the works dealing with that mental wellness of our officers, some things in the works that we're going to be rolling out but that probably won't be publicized much. It's going to be an in-house thing dealing with the things that we see day in and day out," he said.

The police chief added that the job gets trying, frustrating, and overwhelming at times.

"Most of our day consists of dealing with evil or ignorance and that takes a toll on officers a lot. The calls we go on can have a severe mental toll on them and we're trying to do some things internally to combat that, to help with officer burnout, officer productivity, things like that," King said.