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Courtesy of Tulsa World
Published 12/05/2019 | Reading Time 2 min 36 sec
By BWSTimes Staff
After 39-years in law enforcement, Chief Chuck Jordan of the Tulsa Police Department (TPD) announced his coming retirement in an email:
“This is one of the harder emails that I will ever write. February 1st will be my retirement date from the Tulsa Police Department.
Just to be sure you know, there are no health issues involved and I have no dissatisfaction with my relationship with the Mayor’s office. I could not ask for a more supportive Mayor. Most chiefs are not so lucky.
This will be the 10th anniversary of my appointment to chief. It has been the most exciting and satisfying decade of my life. Each of you can take credit for that. Anyone can be put in charge. A leader is only successful because he has troops who give consent to be led and share his passion for the job.
Even during difficult days, one or many of you always gave me reason to smile and to be proud. Keep making whomever is the next chief proud as well.
You are members of the best police department in the nation. Always hold your head high and strive to be even better. Your community needs you to be your best.
My future includes quality time with Judy, my wife of 48 years and the rest of my family. I also hope to travel around the US and take in some of the sights I have not seen.
Take care and know that you will be in my prayers daily. Thank you for making me and TPD look good.
Chuck”
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Chief Jordan was appointed as Tulsa’s 39th Chief of Police by the former city mayor, Dewey Bartlett, on November 12, 2010.
The chief’s goal was to restore citizens’ trust in TPD; however, amid the unarmed shooting-deaths of Joshua Harris, Terence Crutcher, and death of Joshua Harvey, a lack of confidence in Jordan’s leadership remained loudly pronounced within Tulsa’s Black and the city’s activist communities.
Chief Jordan gained national attention during the Betty Jo Shelby Trail. Officer Shelby is the White female TPD officer who shot and killed Terence Crutcher on September 16, 2016, and was charged with first-degree manslaughter. Much of Tulsa’s Black community trust in TPD was lost when Jordan reinstated Officer Shelby to her post two days after a majority White jury acquitted her.
Community policing has presumably been Chief Jordan’s biggest challenge for the past decade. In past interviews, Chief Jordan mentioned, “We know we’ve had failings.” He added, “We understand that, and we’re committed absolutely to making a better relationship where we ensure trust and ensure cooperation in our community.”
Jordan’s criticism from the Black and activism communities led to Tulsa citizens’ founding of organizations like T.U.L.S.A, JUSTulsa and the Terence Crutcher Foundation, advocacy groups that seek policy reform within the city’s police department.
In 2017, Chief Jordan canceled his department’s contract with the A&E show “Live PD” because the show exposed incidents of racial profiling and catered to the viewers’ worst fears and biases about the Black community; nevertheless, before the dust began to settle after the unarmed shootings of Black Tulsans by TPD officers the show returned in 2019.