Last Updated on August 6, 2023, 2:59 AM | Published: August 1, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY — The six sworn Oklahoma City Police Department officers who had previously been charged with crimes in two shootings resulting in two deaths in 2020 will not immediately go back to the same duties they had from over two years ago.
At a news conference Monday, Chief Wade Gourley said they would need to go through counseling, evaluation, debriefing, and training to get them up to speed.
He also acknowledged that the community is in pain from the deaths at police hands, that it is powerful, and beyond his ability to alleviate.
“There’s nothing I can do to ease their pain,” said Gorley.
He also acknowledged that there is work to do among the city’s officers whose charges were dropped saying that there had been “a lot of pain” that they had been through.
‘Lot of training’
“They’re going to have to go through a lot of training,” said Gourley. “A lot of things have changed in the 2 1/2 years since they’ve been gone.”
The officers were not allowed to do any type of work for the department, or even make any contact, while they were under indictment over those years even though they were on paid administrative leave.
“A lot of the timing as to when they come back to work will depend on them,” said Gourley.
The process
The Chief said that the early efforts to reintegrate the officers into the work would depend on three things:
- Their work with the Wellness Team (support unit within the department)
- Each individual officer, and
- “What we feel is best for the community”
Gourley said that since 2020 he has established “reality-based training” where experienced officers who have worked in Oklahoma City carry out training scenarios to give officers a feel for what they will encounter on the job.
And, that is what is planned for those who even want to come back and do the work after having to sit out the last 2 1/2 years. In response to one question from the media, Gourley said Monday he has not talked with the officers yet and doesn’t even know if all of them will want to come back.
Equipment changes since 2020
And for those who are returning after over two years, the training will be tailored to their needs.
“We’ll have them go through several scenarios to make sure they’re comfortable and that there isn’t anything that triggers them,” said Gourley. “We don’t want them to have any issues out in the field.
Gourley also said that there are other aspects to being out for over two years that will require retraining.
He pointed out that the department now issues new Tasers deployed since 2020 with different capabilities.
Gourley has also worked to get more less-lethal weapons in more trained hands in the department.
He said that in 2020 they only had “a couple” of 40mm launchers capable of delivering a bean bag or a non-lethal projectile meant to temporarily disable someone and avoid resorting to lethal means of responding.
Now, there are 145 of those launchers out in the field and he has ordered that more officers are trained than launchers to make sure all of the launchers are available in the moment on any, according to Gourley.
Charges dropped
Former Oklahoma County DA David Prater brought charges during his tenure against the seven police officers for three shootings in the last half of 2020.
Six of those officers were with OKCPD and had been involved in two different police shootings in the last two months of 2020 resulting in the deaths of Stavian Rodriguez and Bennie Edwards.
The seventh officer was a City of the Village PD officer who shot and killed a man in the summer of 2020.
Friday, new DA Vicki Behenna announced that all seven officers previously charged were “justified” in their shootings “under the law.” She referred heavily to an expert from California who she said was not heavily connected to law enforcement.
KOCO TV news discovered later in the day that the consultant had been a deputy sheriff for 28 years.
Founder, publisher, and editor of Oklahoma City Free Press. Brett continues to contribute reports and photography to this site as he runs the business.
