Police Chief: Spike in burglaries already for September

During a Sept. 9 chat session, Tahlequah Police Chief Nate King updated the public on call numbers so far for September and the year.

Officers have logged about 1,300 calls for service; 391 traffic stops; 308 building checks; and seven burglaries. Officers made 42 arrests so far in September.

"We have had seven burglaries for the month. We're crunching data today, looking at those to see.. from what I saw on the [map], they're kind of spread out all over and it's less than one a day but it's still - we didn't have seven burglaries all of the month of August so that's spike in our data that we look at regularly and so we're addressing that today to see what we can do," King said.

Officers have logged 36,210 calls for service so far in 2024 and King said they had a little over 36,000 calls for service in 2023.

"We're going to probably set a new record as far as calls for service. Tahlequah continues to grow. We see it everyday. You see it everyday [with] more and more people in town and with that is going to be more and more calls for service, more and more accidents, or burglaries, or disputes and things like that. We continue to respond to more and more calls each day," King said.

Officer Adam Garrett has completed his field-training process and Tahlequah's school resource officers have finished Active Shooter training with students at all school sites.

King teamed up with the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 201 and fed the Tahlequah High School football team breakfast Friday, Sept. 6. Additional officers provided security at Friday's game as well.

In other business, King said there are 9/11 memorial events slated for this Wednesday; a speaking engagement with the American Legion Post 50; and the Tahlequah 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb at Doc Wadley Stadium at 6 a.m.