TULSA, Okla. — Friends and family packed the police training division Friday afternoon as 18 officers graduated from the academy.
Class 127 unveiled its motto, “Stay in the fight".
They say it means embracing their responsibility of protecting our community and upholding justice.
Among the crowd of graduates was Callie Crase.
Crase told KJRH she's had bad encounters with law enforcement in the past.
Instead of pushing her away, it drove Crase to become an officer.
"I feel like I wasn't treated fairly…I wanted to go out of my way to make sure that victims and people who call law enforcement don't have those same instances that I had," said Crase.
TPD said they have low numbers and struggled to fill officer positions.
Major Mark Wollmershauser said just how short-handed they have been.
"We're authorized to have 943 police officers we're down to about 800, we were at one point in time up to 860 so these 18 officers will help out," said Wollmershauser.
Graduation was also the perfect opportunity for TPDto show off the new helicopter, which will assist the new graduates for high-speed chases.
Crase is one of seven female officers in her class and is proud to be one of them.
"I think it's so awesome we have as many women as we do in our class, I believe it's one the largest numbers that we've had in a while," said Crase.
Major Wollmershauser said the future looks bright for the Tulsa police department.
"It does these men and women are our future and they are going to be wonderful," said Wollmershauser
TPD said graduates will go through a field training program and then will be split up into stations around Tulsa.
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere --
- Download our free app for Apple, Android and Kindle devices.
- Sign up for daily newsletters emailed to you
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
- SUBSCRIBE on YouTube
