56 Officers Serve Police Department

The Ponca City Police Department under the leader-ship of Police Chief Clayton Johnson is staffed by 56 sworn officers and is located in the Public Safety Center at 200 East Oklahoma Avenue.

The mission of the Department is to dedicate itself to work in partnership with the community to fight crime, reduce fear, and improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods.

In addition to enforcing federal, state and city laws, the department offers a variety of special services to the community.

Contact Information

Training

Training is a very important function of the Ponca City Police Department.

It not only serves to educate individual officers, but provides a path for new ideas by performing a type of research and development function.

Training helps to ensure that officers have the latest information regarding laws and police procedures, allows for the maintenance of state-required licenses and certifications and, most importantly, helps provide the best service possible to the citizens of Ponca City.

All training is conducted by the department's certified instructors as well as through other agencies such as CLEET, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Agency, International Associations of Chiefs of Police, District Attorney's Training Council, Texas Department of Public Safety, Pioneer Technology Center, Oklahoma City and Tulsa police departments and the Law Enforcement Training Network.

Westside Community Policing Project

This project began in 1997 as an attempt to bring proactive police action to what was identified through statistics as an area that had a higher number of reported crimes than other parts of the city. Officer Bob Pruett and Officer Brad Fultz continue to work with residents and neighbors of the project area on crime prevention and education. They also coordinate with other resources to clean up public nuisances.

School Resource Officers

In September of 1999, the Police Department and the Ponca City Schools joined together forging a partnership that placed a full-time School Resource Officer on campus at the senior high school.

Sgt. Randy Empting has completed his third year as the School Resource Officer at Ponca City High School (Po-Hi) and is looking forward to another year with the high school students.

In addition, a student-run Crime Stoppers program continues to grow. This program gives students a way to report crime and still remain anonymous.

COPS Program

The Community Oriented Policing (COPS) program, which added a second school resource officer in 2000, was started at East and West Middle schools as a federal grant program.  Officer Tom Burg maintains a positive relationship with the young people by eating lunch with them, attending staff meetings with the teachers and conferring regularly with parents.

Crime Stoppers

The Ponca City Area Crime Stoppers is a successful long-time community program, which also sponsors the Po-Hi Campus Crime Stoppers program.

The Ponca City Area Crime Stoppers program began in April of 1984 and has been the vessel for the recovery of thou-sands of dollars worth of illegal drugs and stolen property.

One of the keys to the pro-gram's long-term success is that it provides a way for citizens to remain anonymous while relaying information regarding stolen property, wanted per-sons, and criminal activity. The other key is the citizen-run board of directors that exemplifies the partnership which the Police Department has forged with the community.

Depending on the information, and upon subsequent arrest and conviction, a reward is given to the citizen who provides the information. Call Crime Stoppers at 762-5100.

Citizens Police Academy

The Ponca City Police Department completed its seventh session of the Citizen Police Academy (CPA) this year. Many alumni of the academy continue to sup-port the Police Department through volunteer service that complements every function of the department.

Beginning each January, 20 citizens, who have been selected through an application process, attend classes once a week for 13 weeks to lean about every operational aspect of the Ponca City Police Department.

The CPA has opened lines of communication between the Police Department and the community creating partnerships recognized statewide and inter-nationally. The academies are a blend of lectures, tours, hands-on training and practical scenarios. Applications will be avail-able by mid-October.

Youth Police Academy

This summer, during the second week of July, under the coordination of Sgt. Don Bohon, the department held a youth academy for 20 high school students, aged 15 to 18 years old.

The program, which began in 1999, provides an opportunity for officers to interact in a very positive manner with youth in the community. The week-long training sessions cover some of the same aspects as taught in the Citizen Police Academy, with a strong emphasis on hands-on training.

On given days during each session, the attendees meet with representatives of the Police Department, Kay County Sheriff's Office, Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, State Wildlife Service, the FBI, and the U.S. Marshal's Service.

Police Reserve Program

After completing the Citizen Police Academy, and having gone through the additional training required for the Extra Eyes program, a few graduates have wanted to become certified as Reserve Officers. Currently, local business leaders Larry Bittman and Rick Waddell are active in the rekindling of the Police Reserve Program. At their personal expense, each has attended the Basic Reserve Law Enforcement Officer's Academy through the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training. They have similar credentials to full-time officers in the department.

K9 Program

Two years ago, the Ponca City Police Department acquired Rocky, a three-year-old Belgian Malinois purchased with funds from the Major Crimes unit and the Ponca City AMBUCS. Rocky is partnered with Master Patrol-man Fred Landis and is cross-trained in tracking, narcotics detection and patrol functions. In 2001, Rocky completed training in article location, which enables him to search large areas for missing items and evidence.

Extra Eyes Program

From the Citizen Police Academy alumni, an interested group of volunteers emerged that want- ed to undergo specialized additional certified training to assist the Police Department to serve as extra eyes and ears in a variety of situations.

Extra Eyes volunteers patrol special-emphasis areas in unmarked, specially equipped vehicles, while reporting suspicious activity and crimes in progress.

This partnership has provided assistance during drug arrests, curfew emphasis efforts, parades, traffic control problems, juvenile court, and electronic fingerprint classification.

Ponca City Police Foundation

The Ponca City Police Foundation is another example of a citizen-initiated program benefiting the Police Department. Charter members of this foundation have collected money within the community to purchase special equipment and to support specialized training.

For the past two years, they have teamed up with the local Fraternal Order of Police to sponsor an early summer benefit golf tournament. And in June, they hosted an evening at the Poncan Theatre for a message on counterterrorism by Richard Marquise, FBI special agent in charge of the Oklahoma Field Office.

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