OKLAHOMA CITY – In recent weeks, Oklahoma City police officers have been showing up in social media posts and even news headlines patrolling and making arrests in the last place you might expect: 1,000 miles away from home in Washington D.C.
The officers were requested – along with personnel from the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies from cities and counties across the United States – to assist with security during Washington’s America 250 celebrations.
But despite cost concerns among OKC taxpayers and claims of ongoing staffing shortages from OKCPD leadership, a spokesperson for the Oklahoma City Police Department says that it’s all routine, common, and shouldn’t cause any worry.
“These types of mutual aid things come up from time to time, where we either go to assist somebody or we’re requesting assistance from another agency,” MSgt. Gary Knight of the OKCPD’s Public Information Office told Free Press in a phone call this week. “That’s just part and parcel of what we do.”
11 officers requested for month-long event
Along with potentially hundreds of officers from other law enforcement agencies across the country, the Oklahoma City Police Department sent 11 officers of the Emergency Response Team to assist with America 250 security when requested by the federal government.
Those officers have been seen patrolling in Washington D.C. in areas around the National Mall and surrounding national monuments over more than two weeks, and they’re contracted to continue the assignment until the end of the celebrations even as reports and photos have shown notably sparse attendance.
MSgt. Knight said that these kinds of temporary inter-agency partnerships are common, even for city-level police forces, but that the multi-week event in D.C. is larger and longer than usual.
“I don’t know if anybody’s going in there and getting formally deputized, but it’s a mutual aid agreement, and that’s typically how these types of things work,” he said. “We’re usually there with one of their officers, in case there’s an arrest made or if there’s something we’re going to need their help on, because we simply aren’t familiar with the lay of the land.”
Who is paying?
As the federal government requested the officers, they’re also the ones footing the bill, relieving some concerns that OKC residents are covering the salary costs for officers to patrol a thousand miles away through money allocated for the local police budget.
“We are getting reimbursed for it, but it’s all public funds anyway,” MSgt. Knight said. “I mean, whether it’s the federal stuff, anything police do, it’s always public funds.”
What that final amount will be and when it will be paid in full by the federal government was not immediately clear.
“I don’t know the cost of it or how much is going to be reimbursed,” Knight said, “but it’ll be the total amount reimbursed.”
Knight also confirmed that the City is not expected to replace the missing officers through overtime hours for officers still in OKC.
Isn’t the OKCPD already short-staffed?
In recent years, the Oklahoma City Police Department has consistently claimed to be short-handed.
During his department’s budget proposal in April, Chief Ron Bacy told City Council that he believes the OKCPD will need “somewhere in the future an additional 365 budgeted positions,” with staffing already comprising 70% of the department’s recently approved $300,000,000 budget.
MSgt. Knight acknowledged those staffing issues as well, telling Free Press, “we’ve been shorthanded for years, that’s no secret. We always want more officers.”
A department this size, having 11 officers go, I don’t think anybody’s going to notice any type of a profound effect
– Oklahoma City Police Department PIO MSgt. Gary Knight
So will losing 11 officers for a month mean fewer police on the streets of OKC?
Knight says no.
Despite the short-staffing claims and despite the 20 uniformed officer positions already frozen in order to get the department’s budget down, Knight says the temporary absence of 11 more officers isn’t expected to make any significant difference.
“A department this size, having 11 officers go,” he said, “I don’t think anybody’s going to notice any type of a profound effect.”
Brett Fieldcamp is the owner and Editor in Chief of Oklahoma City Free Press. He has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly two decades and served as Arts & Entertainment Editor before purchasing the company from founder Brett Dickerson in 2026.
He is also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
