Marq Lewis, leader of activist group We the People Oklahoma, has criticized Regalado for wanting to hastily reinstate a program that damaged the prior administration. Additionally, the Community Safety Institute report — a $105,000 external review of the Sheriff’s Office — recommended dismantling the program to reconstruct it from scratch.

Regalado addressed those concerns by saying he isn’t “cutting corners,” noting the only reserve program suggestion within the CSI report he isn’t following is the recommendation to scrap and begin anew. He also added that it would be unfair to punish residents who wish to volunteer their time and actually have documentation that they are qualified simply because of one reserve — Bates.

“We don’t have the resources in terms of field training officers to be able to accommodate that amount of people coming back (all at once to redo training),” Regalado said, later adding that the program is down to an estimated 87 reserves from about 129. “It would cost in terms of personnel, time and money a lot more to do that.”