April 3, 2023
By Landry Brewer
The Elk City Police Department is bursting at the seams, and voters can help.
Tuesday’s municipal ballot will give Elk Citians the chance to repurpose and extend an existing half-cent sales tax and expand the Elk City Police Station, which was built 41 years ago when the police force was much smaller.
“When the police department moved into the current building in 1982, the force was comprised of 11 officers,” said Elk City Assistant Chief of Police John Cook. “Now there are 30 officers.”
The police station has never been enlarged.
According to Cook, 24 Elk City Police officers occupy a single patrol room and work around each other, writing and filing reports and executing other duties, all in cramped quarters.
Additionally, more space is needed to accommodate today’s technology.
“We don’t have the capacity, the infrastructure for the Wi-Fi, ethernet cables and other new things that weren’t dreamed of 40 years ago,” Cook said.
The police station also needs more room to divert heat generated by all the department’s technology. “A lot of heat builds up in this electronic equipment, and we need the space and heat-dissipating capacity to keep the equipment running,” Cook said.
The Elk City Police Department’s dispatch area also needs expansion.
The department runs at least two and sometimes three dispatchers at a time. They dispatch the police department, the fire department, and EMS, plus eight rural fire departments from Carter to Foss, and the ECPD dispatchers also take all 911 calls.
More space is needed between personnel so that simultaneous calls received don’t create interference and confusion as the dispatchers talk and direct personnel during emergencies.
“If someone calls on the police line and a 911 call comes in, we want to make sure the dispatchers are far enough away from each other and don’t get cluttered up,” Cook said.
If approved by voters, the repurposed and extended sales tax will provide these needed public safety improvements without raising taxes
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