Last week, the Tulsa World reported that Robert Bates, the reserve Tulsa County sheriff’s deputy who killed an unarmed man in a drug sting–supposedly after intending to tase him instead–may have had his training records forged. Well, less than 24 hours after we learned about an internal investigation from 2009 that seemed to corroborate those allegations, the local district attorney gave a pretty loud hint that an independent investigation of the sheriff’s office is in the offing.
In a statement, Tulsa County district attorney Stephen Kunzweiler said that he? is “highly concerned” about information that suggests Bates not only had his records falsified, but that numerous policy violations on his part went unaddressed. Kunzweiler is concerned enough that he has been “in contact with independent law enforcement agencies” with a view toward a broader investigation of the sheriff’s office.
The World obtained a copy of a memo detailing the results of the 2009 investigation. Read it here. It found that chief deputy Tim Albin and captain Tom Huckeby directed several department employees to modify documents related to Bates’ training hours. For instance, one deputy assigned to oversee Bates’ field training, Thomas Crittenden, claimed Huckeby forced him to sign at least two memos stating that Bates completed the necessary training and was ready to go on patrol. Crittenden said that he was concerned about Bates’ ability to handle traffic stops, and felt Bates needed additional training. However, Huckeby told him to initial the memos anyway. Crittenden said he would have come forward sooner, but feared being transferred.
The head of the reserve deputy program at the time, Randy Chapman, revealed that he’d seen Bates driving a personal vehicle with police equipment. He immediately notified Albin about this. However, Chapman recalled Albin told him that it was “a shit sandwich” that Chapman would have to accept. Later, Bates donated that car to the sheriff’s office–and was promptly assigned to that car. No other reserve deputy at the time was assigned to a particular vehicle. When Chapman learned that Bates was conducting traffic stops before completing his field training, he complained to Albin–and got cursed out for his troubles. Chapman continued to call out Bates for policy violations–and was rewarded by being transferred to a midnight shift for a week, and then moved to a program where he had no contact with Bates.
The investigation also found that a number of deputies were concerned about Bates being out on the streets due to the training sessions he missed and numerous mistakes he made in the field. It also revealed he was confrontational with anyone who called him out. However, many of them kept quiet out of fear of being transferred, and those who did speak up faced retaliation. The lead investigator, Rob Lillard, concluded that Albin and Huckeby gave Bates preferential treatment and fostered an environment in which criticism of that treatment was not tolerated.
It says a lot about the culture of the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office that Albin and Huckeby have actually been promoted since this report. Albin is now undersheriff, making him second in command to Sheriff Stanley Glanz. Huckeby is now a major, and oversaw the task force of which Bates was a member. It also says a lot about the office’s culture that it is investigating what it calls an unauthorized release of information. For my money, whoever blew the whistle on this situation deserves a medal.
Kunzweiler should be applauded for recognizing this as the outrageous situation that it is. If an investigation is indeed mounted–assuming that it hasn’t started already–to my mind, it won’t be credible unless it ends with Albin and Huckeby being stripped of their badges at the very least. And it won’t be credible unless Glanz loses his job as well.
