A Story By Benjamin H Groff© Groff Media Copyright 2024©
It was the early 1980s, and he rolled into the city from the South. The police department was easy to find. The radio tower extended high above the building and be seen from miles away. Pulling up in front for the first time as an officer gave him a true sense of purpose. He felt independence because he was on his own for the first time since graduating.
He entered the building to be fitted for uniforms. He also received his equipment there. During this time, he met two officers who would feature prominently in his future years. One he met right away. His name was Lee. Lee provided him with a resource for his first housing solution. This was in a town that the oil boom had overrun. People lived in tents in the town park and alongside the road. The other officer was Eddie. He was a Deputy from Cheyenne. Eddie had the actual house, a three-bedroom mobile home in a city-owned trailer court. The jurisdiction provided this to city employees to live. The rent was cheap by local standards and answered an immediate need. It did, though, come with a police K9 and two roommates who have been more neat and orderly.
The police department operated out of a building shared with the fire department. The jail was on the second floor above the communications center. The fire crew slept across from the jail cells on the second level. This raised issues for a city that had doubled in population and area due to annexation. Voters approved a tax proposal to build a new police station and jail. They also planned to rebuild the fire station. Blueprints for the new station were in place, though its construction was several years away.
In court cases, Chicago judges had pointed to the city defendants. Elk City, Oklahoma was a place where they can get a one-way bus ticket. Or pick the choice to get six months in jail. Most people opted to take the bus ticket. The type of characters sent to the area ranged from criminals to mentally unstable to socially dysfunctional. It would be years before the area recovered from the judge’s poor decisions in making such a move. Before then, there would be murders, rapes, and worse.
The city was busy 24 hours a day. Calls for patrol unit service were backed up by three to four calls at a time. When calls did get caught up, it didn’t last long. The shifts were rotational. In that, there was never an entire shift on and off at the same time. Night shifts changed at 6 AM and 8 AM, and Day shifts changed at 4 PM and 8 PM. A mid-shift operated from 2 PM to 2 AM. Each officer worked ten-hour shifts with three days off. The schedule permitted officers to work extra assignments at security posts. This was necessary when gas wells blew their tops out. Roadblocks also had to go in place out in the county. Officers earn as much as $300 on their days off, pulling such assignments. And if there weren’t such assignments, you always pull OT. You take comp time. An officer used this later instead of vacation or sick days. An advantage that the city offered other municipalities didn’t.
The allure of lights, excitement, and action made Elk City, Oklahoma’s bustling oil town so attractive. It captivated an 18-year-old just out of high school. It also kept him there for many years, leading him through years of service. The young officer had already been briefed well in law enforcement with his earlier departments. There are histories from those days. They will come alive in the future. They will tell of his Elk City Days and how he became known throughout western Oklahoma.
In the next few weeks, he will watch the front door. He needs to see if he must duck bullets coming through the station’s windows.
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