(STILLWATER, OK) – Response data from 2022 shared at the Council meeting this evening reflects there were more than 40,000 call-outs responded to by Stillwater Police, Fire, Emergency Management, and Animal Welfare Departments.
“Our Police, Fire, Emergency Management, and Animal Welfare departments are the embodiment of proactive public safety and service above self. They spend countless hours preparing, planning and implementing every possible precaution to mitigate and/or reduce crime and also ensure emergency responses are swift, calm, and professionally-driven,” City Manager Norman McNickle said. “We appreciate their continued dedication, hard work, and leadership.”
Stillwater’s public safety is the collaboration of Stillwater Police Department (SPD), Stillwater Fire Department (SFD), Stillwater Emergency Management (SEMA), and Stillwater Animal Welfare (SAW).
SPD: Police responded to 32,820 calls in 2022, including 9-1-1 emergency calls (19,739), and texts to 9-1-1 (80). They received more than 78,000 non-emergency calls. New data included in this year’s statistics – mental health related calls responded to (319) and total arrests made throughout 2022 (1,612).
Leadership: Police Chief Jeff Watts and Asst. Chief Shannon Jordan
SFD: Fire responded to more calls in 2022 than 2021, with 4,178. Of the call-outs, 1,423 involved Emergency Medical Services, 231 were structure, vehicular and grass fires, and 42 were emergency rescue situations.
Leadership: Chief Terry Essary and Asst. Chief Brandon Halcomb
SEMA: Emergency Management and volunteers were deployed in 23 severe weather events in 2022. The department also provided assistance to both Payne County Health Department and Stillwater Medical Center (SMC) with health-related concerns related to meningitis, COVID-19, and most recently assisted SMC with the large power outage that occurred within the facility. SEMA also provided technical assistance to SOT and SWAT, and provided logistics and support for firefighting with SFD, Oklahoma Highway Patrol’s EnDUI Checkpoints, Oklahoma State University home football games with drone detection, and SPD with multiple emergency responses.
Leadership: Director Rob Hill and Deputy Director Brenden Pope
SAW: In 2022, they responded to almost 3,000 call-outs, which included picking up dogs at-large (603), picking up deceased animals (277), performing welfare/cruelty checks (343), responding to livestock calls (32), and wildlife calls (147). Animal Welfare is under the direction of Stillwater Police as it is an essential component of public safety.
Leadership: Captain Royce Stephens and Supervisor Rachel Wasserman
?“This information only addresses a small fraction of the phenomenal and selfless service our public safety entities provide each and every one of us. Their dedication to plan and protect at major events such as Oklahoma State University’s Homecoming and Walkaround, Stillwater’s Holiday Parade, Martin Luther King, Jr. March, and others, is methodical and unparalleled. We are safer and healthier because of their commitment and we greatly appreciate their sacrifice and that of their families,” said Melissa Reames, Deputy City Manager for the City of Stillwater.
All of the public safety entities support and enforce training throughout their departments.
Those in preparation to become a police officer experience multiple weeks of training. SPD recently acquired their own basic police academy which is mutually beneficial for the department and the City. Officers go through 27 total weeks of in-house/CLEET training before their field training, which is an additional 15 weeks. All of the training must be completed prior to working in the field alone.
Stillwater Firefighters received more than 8,300 hours of training in 2022 alone.
For inquiries, contact Dawn Jones, PIO, Communications Department at (405) 742-8214 or email dawn.jones@stillwater.org.
