Former employees of the Foyil Police Department are facing criticism regarding how the department was ran.
NewsChannel 8 reached out to Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton Wednesday following multiple comments from citizens that the department was ineffective; and the sheriff's office actually helped the community more than the department.
"I don't have time to babysit through the drama of the town of Foyil and their police department," said Walton, when asked why his office didn't intervene before the office closed.
Multiple Foyil leaders confirmed to NewsChannel 8 Tuesday that the department was forced to close after officers timed out on getting their CLEET certification and the final Police Chief resigned.
NewsChannel 8 spoke with that Chief on the phone Wednesday and plan to dive further into what he had to say in the coming weeeks.
He noted that his resignation was tied to the termination of Foyil Court Clerk Cindy McMahan, who told NewsChannel 8's John Hayes Tuesday she was forced out.
"When they made a motion to terminate me, the attorney advised them not to do this because it wasn't really legal right now until they figure out if I'm elected or appointed," said McMahan. "So they chose to continue on, so I laid my pen down, and got up and walked off as soon as they did.
NewsChannel 8's John Hayes asked Walton Wednesday if any staff inside of the department had reached out to his office for help in the few years the department was up and running,
"No, and I mean this office is open," said Walton.
NewsChannel 8 also asked Walton about any signs of dysfunction or red flags within the department he had been made aware of.
"Complaints as far as, you know, the focus is on, you know, traffic enforcement," said Walton.
A concerned viewer reached out to NewsChannel 8 last week about a ticket he received while driving through city limits.
Robert Brooks said McMahan told him he could pay $40 over the phone to have the ticket taken care of, but that she was terminated and the department closed before he could get the situation resolved.
"The Police Chief simply called our dispatch and said we won't have anybody available from this period to this period which was fairly lengthy," said Walton, when asked if any other complaints came to mind.
An anonymous former officer with the department spoke candidly with NewsChannel 8 regarding that topic and several others Wednesday.
That former officer noted that while there were some instances in which the department was not operating consistently, that operation ultimately boiled down to all officers being volunteers other than the Chief and the Assistant Chief of Police.
That former officer also spoke about his time with the department, adding that it was a mixed bag.
"I did enjoy much of the time I worked there, but as it came to the end it got much worse," said the former officer.
The officer said that experience had a lot to do with negative interactions between then Police Chief Dustin Stamper, and city board of trustees members.
"[Stamper] was always, uh, suspicious of everybody," said the former officer. "I know that there was a lot of issues between him and the mayor at the time."
Stamper agreed to an interview Wednesday as well, of which will be shared in further detail in future reports.
"I wanted to help," said Stamper when asked why he accepted the position. "I wanted to do what was see, see what I could do to to build that department up."
Stamper told NewsChannel 8 that he did not believe he did anything inappropriate or abused his power during his employment from March 2022-2023.
The former officer said they did not see Stamper do anything that they believed crossed the line or abused his power, but that he asked officers not to question anything he told them to do.
NewsChannel 8's John Hayes asked Stamper if he had had any arguments with city officials.
"That I'm not going to speculate on," said Stamper.
"OK, so you can't confirm one way or the other if there were any arguments or disagreements between you and city officials," News Channel 8's John Hayes asked.
"I'm not gonna speculate on that," said Stamper.
"I mean, it's not speculation, I'm just asking you a yes or no question, really," said Hayes.
"And I told you, I'm not going to comment on that," said Stamper.
Stamper said that his biggest frustration and pain point while employed was a lack of proper funding for the department.
NewsChannel 8 asked him why none of the officers under his tenure were CLEET-certified. Stamper said he made attempts, but that the progress ultimately came to a halt for a number of reasons tied to the pandemic and other factors.
When asked to elaborate on that, Stamper dodged further questioning.
NewsChannel 8 talked to Stamper for a little over 20 minutes before he ended the conversation abruptly, noting that he had other things to tend to.