Tulsa police departments get creative to attract new recruits

By Sharon Phillips

Click here for updates on this story

    GREEN COUNTRY, Oklahoma (KJRH) — Twenty years ago, people would sign up to become a police officer saying it was a calling and something they felt driven to do.

Today, many departments are struggling to fill open positions for a variety of reasons.

Sand Springs Deputy Chief, Todd Enzbrenner, says his department’s first priority is to have people in cars out on the streets keeping the public safe.

When they are short-handed, officers have to pick up extra shifts which is time away from their families.

“Currently, we have 32 police officers, and we are allotted in the budget for 34, but we just got a grant, the school got a grant for an additional SRO, so we will have 35 for the next couple of years,” said Enzbrenner.

He says fewer people are applying for the position and some say that’s because of what they are seeing on the national news, especially following incidents like the officer-involved shooting in Ferguson in 2014.

In that case, a white officer shot and killed a black teenager named, Michael Brown.

That case sparked unrest and weeks of protests after a grand jury chose not to indict the officer.

“So, for an example, 15 years ago we had 35 or 40 people that would apply for a job or you know, if we had two openings. Now, we just tested two weeks ago and we’re doing backgrounds on some people, and we had 6 people test for a position,” said Enzbrenner.

So now, departments are having to get creative in their recruiting.

The Sand Springs Police Department recently installed a brand new gym that it shares with the fire department.

Officers are able to work out before or after their shift and even on their lunch break because the facility is on site.

The Tulsa Police Department is also working to build up its force.

Currently, the department has just over 800 officers, but its slated for more than 950.

To entice new officers, the department is currently offering a $15,000 sign-on bonus to new recruits.

“We were really excited that the mayor’s office was able to find the money to fund the bonus for us. What that did was people who were looking at other law enforcement agencies… that kind of made them turn their head a little bit toward us,” said Captain Mark Ohnesorge.

Every 3 to 4 months, the Tulsa Police Department is looking to hire an additional 30 officers due to attrition and other factors like retirement.

The city of Sapulpa currently has a 47 member department, but is also looking to hire.

Sapulpa is currently working to increase the starting pay of $40,000, but it will depend on approval by the city council.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.