Police Chief: higher call volume, lower property crime

During a Monday, Sept. 25 chat session, Tahlequah Police Chief Nate King and admins were out patrolling the streets.

King and the admins were patrolling during Monday’s day shift in order to give officers a day off.

“They’ve been working 12-hour shifts for four days a week for over a month or so, so we gave them an admin day off today,” King said.

The police chief said his department is staying occupied with call volumes, but he stated that property crime is considerably low.

“We just held a training that we sponsored here that had over 100 police officers from across the state show up for. We were glad to see that and glad to do that,” he said.

Officers are continuing to provide extra security at the Tahlequah High School football games as well as providing food to those officers and staff members of the Tahlequah Public Schools who are working.

King added that there aren’t many “major” things going on as for the department’s Strategic Focus Unit. Those officers have been working security at the home football games.

“The one night that they came out to work as a group, we actually had a homicide in Tahlequah, so they were stuck on the homicide for the entirety of their shift,” King said.

Officers are focusing on getting all their training requirements done before the first of the year.

“Right now, we have one vacancy but it won’t be filled until January. We have Officer Richard Berry halfway through his field-training and Officer David Trammell is due to graduate C.L.E.E.T. in just a couple of weeks,” King said.

Officer Jess McClure has been off work due to an injury, but she is slated to return sometime this week.

“We’ll be happy to have those three fully invested and fully working for us,” King said.