The motto is “to protect and serve.”
But for a devoted police department in Geary, Oklahoma, actions from their own city left them with no choice but for their entire force to quit — along with other city leadership.
Here’s what happened.
According to FOX 25 Oklahoma City, the entire Geary Police Department in Oklahoma — including Chief Alicia Ford — resigned on Oct. 31.
But it didn’t stop with the police.
City Council members Rocky Coleman and Kristy Miller resigned shortly afterward, according to FOX 25 Oklahoma City, along with Mayor Waylan Upchego.
Yes, the entire town’s leadership suddenly quit. But why?
“The reason that prompted the entire resignation was: it was just a continued failure from the mayor to make change that would affect the department and make it more effective for the community,” Ford told Fox News.
“It was just an ongoing issue. He consistently refused to keep his word to us, and that was something that we held him to. When you’re a mayor, you’re [supposed] to lead the city and what’s best for the city and the departments within.”
Ford said she had gone to Upchego and the city council requesting their help to address the overworked and understaffed police department, plus budget cuts that had recently impacted pay and bonuses for officers, on top of some other administrative issues.
Nobody stepped up, according to the former police chief.
“They cut the jail. They cut our dispatch, and that put strain on us. But we found we went to another agency, and they have done excellent and accommodating us with that dispatch,” Ford explained. “[The mayor] consistently refused to keep his word when it came to basic needs of equipment and the safety issues within our department. We talked about the budget cuts that caused hardships for these officers and myself that were unnecessary.”
Hope added that while she knows that police departments across the country have dealt with staffing shortages and budget cuts, her six-person department was recently reduced to four, with herself doing administrative chief work, one officer stationed at the local high school, and two officers working extremely long shifts doing regular daily police work.
“So that would lead two officers to do basically 24 hours . . . five to seven days a week. That’s not realistic,” she said. “But honestly, who wants to do that for extremely low pay? I mean, they did it. And honestly, I don’t ever really remember these two officers complaining about it.”
According to the report, an interim chief has since taken over the Geary PD, and residents are still able to make 911 calls.