SAND SPRINGS, Ok — A stolen credit card, meant to be in police custody, landed a Sand Springs officer behind bars.
24 year old, Theodore Cook is now facing grand larceny charges.
Back in December, Sand Springs police said they were called to an apartment complex to investigate a death.
As part of their procedures, officers gathered up safekeeping items belonging to the person.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said in a post on its facebook page that during the investigation, it was determined that a credit card belonging to the victim was used multiple times after their death.
Sand Springs police determined that the suspect was one of their own officers.
I sat down with former Sand Springs police chief, Mike Carter and current city manager who says the actions of one should not tarnesh the image of the entire department.
“I will tell you that I am proud that after this incident came to light and they believed that there was an offense, we immediately called in OSBI and we had the individual in custody and booked into the jail within 14 hours of us becoming aware of it,” said Carter.
Below: Sand Springs City Manager Mike Carter discusses department self-policing:
Carter said this has never happened before during his career and while unfortunate if its true, he said there is a strong system in place to hold officers accountable.
“Through the courts, they have the same rights as everybody else does but we hold them to a higher standard through discipline and through their employment, and so if an officer is ever found to have committed a felony, they will go to unpaid status and then there will be the internal review and if that is upheld through the internal review, then they can be terminated,” said Carter.
To keep themselves accountable, Carter said they allow other law enforcement agencies like the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation to come in and investigate its officers.
Below: Sand Springs City Manager Mike Carter discusses public reporting options:
“We have an internal review and we allow external groups or the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation to do the external criminal investigation on our officer. Then consequently we do an administrative review after that is done, because we don’t want to do anything that taints that process,” said Carter.
Carter said if probable cause is found and Cook is bound over for trial, then the police department will have just cause for termination.
In a press release, the Sand Springs Police Department said:
The Sand Springs Police department is investigating several crimes of Unauthorized Use of a Credit Card that was supposed to be in police custody during the time it was allegedly used. During the course of the investigation it was learned that one of our own may be involved. We quickly gather enough evidence to verify our suspicions and within fourteen hours OSBI was brought in to take over the investigation and as a result of that investigation, Agents with OSBI determined that probable cause existed to arrest Theodore “Ted” Cook for several counts of UUCC and Larceny of a CC and he was booked into Tulsa Co Jail. Cook is on unpaid leave until such time that charges are approved for prosecution. If charges are approved Cook will be terminated. This is an ongoing investigation and no further comment will come from this office at this time.
In a Facebook post, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said:
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