BROKEN ARROW, Okla. — Termination letters for three Broken Arrow Police officers fired after an internal investigation shed some light on what happened to trigger that investigation.
Three officers were let go and a fourth officer retired on August 15th.
FOX23 went through the termination letters obtained through an open records request.
The termination notices for those three officers accuse them of violating department policy and the law.
The three termination letters are for officers Jesse Sandoval, Kaitlin Anderson, and Jonathan Chisum.
According to the letters, on May 23, the officers were supposed to book property into the evidence room, but didn’t and their actions resulted in property theft.
The internal investigation found three counts of misconduct by all three officers.
Those counts are criminal allegations, serious rule infractions, and violating department policy that states that officers shall not use, loan, give away, or destroy property.
The letters specifically mention a policy that if firearms and ammunition are found not to be evidence in a case, they must be released by the finder due to the potential for abuse.
The KRMG Afternoon News with Skyler Cooper spoke with Broken Arrow City Manager Michael Spurgeon about this issue.
“We’ve had some officers that have done some things this summer that don’t meet standards or expectations and there needs to be accountability. Everyone else is held accountable in this organization and when they don’t meet expectations, we look at it and we take the appropriate action. I believe that what was done here,” Spurgeon said.
Spurgeon said the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation turned over the findings of their criminal investigation to the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office.
“I look at the actions of these officers and I do not believe it reflects upon anything to do with the police department, the training, the culture, the quality of expectations, the quality of our officers. I just think people don’t make good decisions sometimes. I’m the type of person that if, in fact, someone doesn’t meet the expectations at any department in this organization, they need to be held accountable because that’s what the public expects. That’s what the council expects and most importantly that’s what I expect,” Spurgeon said.
Spurgeon also addressed two other cases within Broken Arrow.
One was a former BA officer, Braden Watts, who was fired after Oklahoma City Police arrested him and gave him a citation for public drunkenness.
The second case is a BA firefighter, Justin Williams, who is on administrative leave after he was charged with reckless conduct with a firearm for an off-duty incident on Keystone Lake. He has pleaded not guilty.
While these incidents are not related, Spurgeon said both the Broken Arrow Fire Chief and Broken Arrow Police Chief are reinforcing the importance of their policies and their trust in the community.
