Tulsa County Sheriff Candidates Speak At Republican Women’s Club

The candidates for Tulsa County sheriff are out meeting voters, talking about restoring trust in the department that continues to generate controversy.

In Tuesday's candidate forum, no one directly mentioned Stanley Glanz or the shooting that lead to his resignation, but the candidates talked a lot about the problems of politicized law enforcement.

2/8/2016 Related Story: Republican Tulsa County Sheriff Candidates Sound Off At Forum

The Republican Women's Club wanted to hear the candidates in person.

"Make their points, so that when our voters go to the polls, they'll know who to vote for,” said Jessica Caswell.

Most candidates talked about rebuilding the budget of the sheriff's office.

John Fitzpatrick: “The product that the Tulsa County jail and the sheriff's office delivers is law enforcement services; they're critical and, and, they need someone who can go in and analyze the budget.”

Tom Helm: “And I can tell you the idea of using training money and jail money to go on vacation under the guise of training would end when I'm in office.”

Vic Regalado believes the audits underway should guide the next sheriff.

“And get a financial picture of where we're at and using that to adjust the budget,” he said.

The other big topic was restoring trust in the office.

Luke Sherman: “I build your trust with the product I give you, the service I provide.”

Brandon Hendrix: “I don't accept campaign contributions and my campaign is completely self-funded.”

Dan Miller believes a new sheriff can rebuild respect for the office.

“But unfortunately, it's gone astray and I want to bring back that organization and respect so we're out there helping the people,” he said.

Candidate Jason Jackson talked about how expenses at the jail are higher than they should be, and Randy Pierce said the sheriff's office needs raises to keep people they've trained to solve a chronic problem with turnover.

The republican primary to narrow down the field is March 1.