Chat With The Chief: Chief Wade Gourley's Retirement

Joining the News 9 for the final time as Oklahoma City Police Chief, Wade Gourley spoke with the News 9 team about his upcoming retirement.

Gourley said when he began joining News 9 for Chat With The Chief in 2020, it was at a time when his department wanted to reach out to the community.

“If you look at 2020 and all the things that went on then, people were upset about law enforcement,” Gourley said. “One of the things that was very frustrating to us at the Oklahoma City Police Department was all of the things that people were referencing as a shortcoming in law enforcement, we had gone past that. We weren't doing those things.”

As a way to remedy this information gap, Gourley said it was his responsibility as police chief to “get the word out.”

“This was a medium that we weren't really using as much, just our local news media,” Gourley said. “To sit down and have regular discussions about the police department.”

Of all his contributions to OCPD, Gourley said one of his greater advancements was improving OCPD's wellness program.

“We had a wellness program, it just wasn't as robust as it needed to be for a department our size,” Gourley said.

As for who will replace him, Gourley said their biggest challenge will be officer recruiting.

“It's been a challenge since 2020, and it still is,” Gourley said. “We're making some gains in the last couple of years, we've had more people get hired onto the police department than we've had leave, but it fluctuates.”

An announcement on who could become Oklahoma City’s next police chief could come as early as Friday morning.

The City of Oklahoma City hired a consulting firm to attract nationwide interest in the position back in April, at a price tag of $50,000. The firm attracted 23 candidates from 8 states, including six within OCPD and one from Canada.

At the moment, four finalists remain, albeit nameless under a promise the city made to protect their current jobs. Two of the top four contenders are from within the ranks of OCPD, while the other two are from New York and Ohio.

The six-month hiring process involved feedback from 50 of the city's top community leaders across all demographics.

The information gathered from the community feedback helped develop the questions used during the multi-round interview process.