Abbreviation NPD Population 118,040 (2014) | Formed 1919 | |
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Legal personality Governmental: Government agency Operations jurisdiction* City of Norman in the state of Oklahoma, USA Size 189.5 square miles (491 km) | ||
Norman Police Department is the primary law enforcement agency in Norman, Oklahoma. Consisting of over 180 officers and 60 support staff, the department is the third largest in Oklahoma, and serves a population of over 100,000 people. The city can boast one of the lowest per capita crime rates in the nation. The department is headed by Keith L. Humphrey, a member of the department since 2011.
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History
The Norman Police Department was established in 1919. Prior to this the law enforcement duties for the community was provided by Deputy U.S. Marshals, then a city marshal.
In 1924, the Norman Police employed four officers. By 1936, the staff had increased to eight officers. These officers worked twelve-hour shifts, seven days a week. By the mid 1930s, the department had one car which was operated twenty-four hours a day. There were also three officers who walked a foot beat in the downtown area on a twenty-four-hour-a-day basis. In 1938, four more officers were hired, with the shifts going to eight-hour shifts, six days a week.
In 1995 the Norman Police Department adopted Community Oriented Policing as the approach to solving problems in the community. Norman was divided into thirteen police beats with officers being assigned to the beats on a permanent basis. The Community Oriented Policing philosophy centers around building partnerships between the police and members of the community. Working together solutions to problems are discovered and cooperation leads to resolutions.
Specialties
Some of the specialized assignments in the Norman Police Department are:
Fallen officers
Since the establishment of the Norman Police Department, three officers have died in the line of duty.