Tulsa County commissioners agreed Monday to contract with Community Safety Institute to conduct a comprehensive review of Sheriff’s Office operations.
Following the commissioners’ 3-0 vote, Sheriff Stanley Glanz said “citizen input” could be a part of the review process, but that it would not be a “citizens review panel.”
“CSI will be examining both current policies and procedures as well as recommending some of the best practices in American law enforcement in the areas of training, records management, public involvement, shooting investigations and proper manning levels,” Glanz said.
County Purchasing Director Linda Dorrell said she expects to have a contract in place by the end of the month and that the review would take up to five months.
A committee of five Tulsa County employees recommended that the county hire CSI.
Glanz had planned to hire the Texas-based company on his own until he was advised to seek requests for proposals.
“I think they will do a good job,” Glanz said Friday.
He added that he is not concerned that some people might perceive the selection as simply rubber-stamping his preferred choice.
“I know people from all of those organizations,” he said of the companies that submitted proposals.
County spokesman Michael Willis, who served on the evaluation committee, said Friday that the RFPs were scored based on the following criteria: cost; the company’s experience working with law-enforcement agencies; understanding of the requested work; and capacity to do the job.
“All five members of the evaluation team scored each one (criteria) and Community Safety was the one who scored the most points,” Willis said.
The other companies to submit RFPs were Hillard Heintze of Chicago and Matrix Consulting Group of Dallas.
Community Safety Institute’s proposed fee is $75,000; Matrix’s proposed fee is $100,000; and Heintze’s $270,000.
Government entities are not legally required to accept the lowest bid when considering proposals for professional services.
The committee that evaluated the RFPs included county Purchasing Director Linda Dorrell; Sheriff’s Office employees Rick Weigel and Terry Simonson; County Commissioner Ron Peters; and Willis.
Glanz requested the review of his office in the wake of a fatal shooting by a reserve deputy April 2 during an undercover operation to retrieve stolen guns.
The reserve deputy, Robert Bates, said he intended to stun Eric Harris with his Taser but mistakenly pulled his gun. Harris was unarmed.
Bates, 73, is a longtime friend of Glanz. He has been charged with second-degree manslaughter and has pleaded not guilty.
The shooting — which was recorded via sunglass cameras bought for the deputies by Bates — drew national attention and led to intense scrutiny of the Sheriff’s Office.
Fallout from the incident — and other investigations involving the Sheriff’s Office — has led to the resignation of Undersheriff Tim Albin and Maj. Tom Huckeby and the firing of Maj. Shannon Clark.
Clark’s termination is reportedly unrelated to issues surrounding Bates and the reserve deputy program.
The Sheriff’s Office has also placed Capt. Bill McKelvey on administrative leave. The move came days after McKelvey was named in a lawsuit alleging a former employee, Vanessa McFadden, was subject to “hostile and malicious conduct.”
The lawsuit also alleged that McKelvey altered a police report about a 2013 assault by an inmate on McFadden.
We The People Oklahoma, the grassroots organization behind rallies and protests in the wake of the Harris shooting, is gathering signatures seeking a grand jury investigation of Glanz.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation has announced it is officially looking into allegations of misconduct in the Sheriff’s Office.
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