The town of Webbers Falls was informed they couldn’t run a police department without a police chief. Webbers Falls fired their police chief, Tim Brown, after he turned over an investigation to Muskogee County District Attorney Larry Moore accusing two former Webbers Falls police officers of making an illegal stop.
Brown released a copy of the investigative report and made statements to media before the investigation was complete. As a result Brown was fired as chief. Both police officers were cleared of any wrong doing by the district attorney’s office and both officers filed a tort claim seeking $1 million in Muskogee County. Attorney Gary L. Richardson from Tulsa will be representing the two former Webbers Falls police officers.
Randy Perryman, Muskogee County undersheriff, said under Oklahoma Council of Law Enforcement Education and Training (CLEET) regulations it is required to have a police chief.
Perryman said Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office has not entered into a contract with the town of Webbers Falls as of now but they will be patrolling Webbers Falls.
“We’ve always provided services for Webbers Falls and for the small towns that don’t have law enforcement,” Perryman said.
“We have a good working relationship with all the small towns in our county,” Perryman said.
Susan Dwyer, city clerk, said the regular town meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Oct. 13 and the topic of what to do with the law enforcement in Webbers Falls will be presented to the board of trustees.
The board of trustees will have to determine whether to make the arrangement permanent or appoint a new chief.
Muskogee County Sheriff Charles Pearson is hopeful the temporary arrangement will be made permanent and that other towns and small communities will follow Webbers Falls in contracting law enforcement services with the county.
“With the times the way they are, this arrangement is a benefit to the community and the county,” Pearson said. “It’s expensive to run a municipality police department.”
“The only thing is our deputies can’t enforce city ordinances. They can not go into the city and enforce ordinances because the laws are made by separate entities,” Perryman said.
Webbers Falls Mayor Jewel Horne said, “We’d like to keep our police department, but if its decided we should stay with the county then we’ll hire a code enforcement officer.”
Webbers Falls officials have given deputies a place in city hall to write reports, make telephone calls and take care of routine business.
Joy Standifird, office manager for the water department, said it is her understanding that small towns may benefit from not having a police department.
“We will just have to see how we can benefit,” Standifird said. Dwyer questioned whether the town would benefit from not having a police department, “It really needs to be studied.”
She said its up to the board to make that decision and they are trying to get as much information as they can to make the right decisions for the town.
