Tulsa police, sheriff's office battle over jail operations

The Tulsa County Sheriff's Office says statements from a Tulsa police captain saying the booking area at the jail was backed up and only taking prisoners on a one-in-one-out basis was "inaccurate, and false."

TPD Captain Wendell Franklin told KRMG early Thursday that his officers were spending a long time at the jail Wednesday night.

"Right around 10:00 last night, the jail was overcrowded, and they were limiting the number of individuals they were taking into the jail," Capt. Franklin said.

"It creates a little issue for us," he continued, "because we have a backlog of officers that are waiting in the booking area, waiting for the prisoner to be allowed to go into the jail."

But when Major Shannon Clark of TCSO heard about KRMG's story, he called the newsroom to say that just wasn't true.

"It's a Tulsa police person making a statement about a law enforcement agency that they don't work in, and they don't get verification of what the practices are," he said, adding that "the information that they put out was inaccurate and false."

Officer Jillian Roberson of TPD says the department stands by the captain's statement.

She tells KRMG an officer was told by an employee at the jail about the one-in-one-out policy, and dutifully notified the captain per TPD policy.

"The communication that was exchanged between the two did lead our officer to believe that the jail was on one-in-one-out."

Asked if any other officers reported the same information, she replied "the information I have (is) that it's just the one."

She did not release that officer's name.

Maj. Clark tells KRMG that TPD can not identify which jail employee gave police that information.

He added that TCSO has reviewed surveillance footage from the booking area, which shows the booking area was not even busy that night.

They also interviewed the deputies who were there at the time, and no one recalled giving saying anything to police about limiting the number of prisoners.

Tulsa County is battling to get an initiative on the April ballot which would provide sales tax money to help expand the jail and build a new Juvenile Justice Center.