Tulsa Police Achieve 100% Solve Rate For 2018 Homicides

Monday, May 14th 2018, 10:04 pm

By: Amy Kauffman

“We can’t take credit for it. We don’t know the reason, just like we can’t take the blame when there’s 82, 83 murders during the year, but we can work to solve them, and that’s what we do,” said Sergeant Dave Walker with Tulsa Police Department.

With a recent arrest and a warrant issued Monday, the Tulsa Police Department’s homicide solve rate is now at 100 percent for homicides committed in 2018.

Walker says it doesn’t happen often, but he’s proud of his team and the community for helping keep criminals off the streets.

TPD has worked 15 homicides this year, which is down compared to this time last year.

However, even though they are at 100 percent right now, Walker says that could change at any time.

“A killer is a killer and, once you’ve killed, you need to be in prison and that’s what we are going to work to do,” said Walker.

Tulsa Police Department has no unsolved homicides in 2018.

They have either arrested someone in connection to the murder, issued a warrant, or know who took part in the shooting if it was officer involved.

“We are notoriously at around 95 to 98 percent the last couple years, so it’s almost expected that we are going to solve,” stated Walker.

He says people coming forward in the community is a big reason the solve rate is so high.

“We have very few murders where people will not tell us what we need to know,” he said.

So far this year, there have been 15 homicides – down compared to this time last year.

And it's lower compared to cities similar in size like Wichita, Kansas, which has 19, and is where recent homicide suspect, Dameon Leathers, was arrested in connection to the shooting death of Howard Thompson.

“We got calls that he was in Oklahoma City, we got calls that he was in Dallas, and then finally they found him in Wichita,” said Walker.

But Walker says that even though they are 15 out of 15 right now, that could easily change.

“There’s always tomorrow. We had a meeting today critiquing what we did on the last one Even though it’s solved, there are things that we can do different, and things we can improve upon, and we are always looking to be better,” stated Walker.

There are still several unsolved homicides from last year and a few cold cases that the homicide unit is working on, so, if you have any information that could lead to more arrests, call Crimestoppers at (918)596-COPS.