OKC Police Chief Discusses Drop In Fatal Officer Involved Shootings

There was a deadly officer involved shooting last week. Oklahoma City Police Chief Wade Gourley talked with News 9 about the decline in the use of deadly force this year compared to last year. 

Related: Police Release New Details In Deadly NE OKC Officer-Involved Shooting

Last week’s shooting was the first deadly officer involved shooting of the year for the Oklahoma City Police.

“We want to do everything we can to avoid these circumstances,” Gourley said. “They're not good for the community, they're definitely not good for the officers that are involved. But sometimes, you know, the suspect places those officers in a situation where the lives of not only the officer themselves, but the general public and those that are around there.”

Related: Man Killed In Oklahoma City Officer Involved Shooting Identified

Officers are trained to de-escalate high-risk situations, so deadly use of force is the last resort.

“In 2021, we created the reality based training unit and all of our patrol officers and their supervisors have been through this training,” Gourley said. “But it's very realistic scenarios that allow officers to interact with a live person. And they take instances that we dealt with before that they get off body camera. Also, what's unique about it is anything that we have access to in the field, we have as a training version. [...] It teaches the officers to de-escalate, to use less lethal [force] when they can and try to do everything they can to avoid a deadly force encounter.”

Cases of deadly officer involved shootings have had a steady decline over the past five years: 2019 - 7 fatal, 2020 - 6 fatal, 2021 - 3 fatal, 2022 - 4 fatal, 2023 - 1 fatal.

“We really teach our officers to be patient and to slow things down. So my hope is that we don't have any more of these,” Gourley said.