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At the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office, our mission is to be the foundation on which everyone in Oklahoma County may thrive, by strengthening public trust and ensuring safe, secure environments through quality, professional law enforcement.

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Meet the Sheriff

Tommie Johnson III

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Sheriff Tommie Johnson III is an Oklahoma City native; a decorated law enforcement professional and experienced leader. The son of a grocery store butcher, Johnson attended Oklahoma City Public Schools his entire life. He went to Hillcrest Elementary; Northeast Middle School; and graduated from U.S. Grant High School where he and his wife, Amanda, were classmates.

Sheriff Johnson was elected to office in 2020, and brought with him a long list of proposed changes he wanted to see implemented under his leadership. ALL of those changes were put into place in the first year, dramatically improving the efficiency of the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s office; morale among staff and the relationship with the community we serve.Oklahoma County sheriff department badge

Among Sheriff Johnson’s long list of accomplishments:

  • Restructuring of OCSO organizational chart resulting in the reduction of captains/division commanders, allowing for more deputies to be on the streets.
  • Created positions in the Patrol Division, focusing strictly on mental health. A Lieutenant with a Masters Degree in Counseling who worked as a counselor in the private sector for more than 20 years oversees the division, and actively works with mental health consumers to make sure they are eating, taking meds and are able to care for themselves. We have seen a dramatic reduction in 911 calls as a result, allowing deputies to respond to more calls for service.
  • Hired a Finance Director with significant experience. She has been able to reduce costs and set up an auditing system that increases transparency.
  •  Created an Inventory Management Position to focus on the issues raised in multiple audits related to inventory tracking. The team has developed an inventory reconciliation process in coordination with the State Auditor and Inspector’s Office.
  •  Hosts Zoom Meeting with all Staff Members every two weeks with a Q&A session with the Sheriff.
  •  Cross Commissioning of Select Municipal Law Enforcement Officers to better support emerging Criminal Investigations across Oklahoma County, without any additional civil exposer for the Sheriff or the County.
  •  Body Worn Camera Implementation for all deputies (Patrol and Warrants) paid for with agency funds, not tax payer funds. These cameras dramatically increase transparency.
  •  Entered into a formal relationship with Metro Tech in the area of Firearms Training. We now have a full-time F/A Instructor assigned to and overseeing firearms training at a state of the art indoor range.
  •  Replaced outdated body armor through donations secured by the sheriff. No tax dollars were used for this life saving purchase.
  • Replaced aging fleet of patrol vehicles with new Chevy Tahoes, paid for in large part using federal grants.
  •  Produces monthly videos for the public showing agency spending, to the penny, to be shared on social media.

Sheriff Johnson began his law enforcement career with the University of Oklahoma Police Department. In 2015, he joined the Norman Police Department, where he was promoted to the rank of Master Police Officer and honored with the City of Norman Police Department’s Centennial Award and the Department’s lifesaving award.

With a heart for kids, Johnson has been a leader on school safety issues. In 2019, he testified before a Capitol committee in support of school safety legislation, and he appeared in a safety video produced by the State Department of Education. He serves as a youth sports coach and regularly volunteers as a mentor for at risk kids in local elementary schools, where he tries to be a positive male influence in the lives of young boys.

Johnson grew up in Antioch Baptist Church and is now a member of Life Church, both in Oklahoma City. He and his wife, Amanda have been married since 2014 and have three sons and a daughter.


History

Office Formation

The Office of Sheriff is one of antiquity. It is the oldest law enforcement office known within the common-law system and it has always been accorded great dignity and high trust. For the most part, the Office of Sheriff evolved out of necessity. Were it not for laws which require enforcing, there would have been no necessity for the Sheriff. There would have been no need for the development of police administration, criminology, criminalists, etc. This is not the case, however. Man learned quite early that all is not orderly in the universe. All times and all places have generated those who covet the property of their neighbors and who are willing to expropriate this property by any means. As such, man's quest for equity and order gave birth to the Office of Sheriff, the history of which begins in the Old Testament and continues through the annals of Judeo-Christian tradition. Indeed, there is no honorable law enforcement authority in Anglo-American law so ancient as that of the County Sheriff. And today, as in the past, the County Sheriff is a peace officer entrusted with the maintenance of law and order and the preservation of domestic tranquility.

Beginning of the Office

The Office of Sheriff and the law enforcement, judicial and correctional functions he performs are more than 1,000 years old. The Office of Sheriff dates back at least to the reign of Alfred the Great of England, and some scholars even argue that the Office of Sheriff was first created during the Roman occupation of England.

Around 500 AD, Germanic tribes from Europe (called the Anglo-Saxons) began an invasion of Celtic England which eventually led over the centuries to the consolidation of Anglo-Saxon England as a unified kingdom under Alfred the Great late in the 9th Century. Alfred divided England into geographic units called "shires," or counties. In 1066, William the Conqueror defeated the Anglo-Saxons and instituted his own Norman government in England. Both under the Anglo-Saxons and under the Normans, the King of England appointed a representative called a "reeve" to act on behalf of the king in each shire or county. The "shire-reeve" or King's representative in each county became the "Sheriff" as the English language changed over the years. The shire-reeve or Sheriff was the chief law enforcement officer of each county in the year 1000 AD. He still has the same function in Oklahoma in the year 2000 AD. Oklahoma's first constitution, adopted in July 1907, created the Office of Sheriff as an elected official in each county. The concepts of "county" and "Sheriff" were essentially the same as they had been during the previous 900 years of English legal history. Because of the English heritage of the American colonies, the new United States adopted the English law and legal institutions as its owner.

Development

Oklahoma's constitution has been revised several times through the years, but the constitutional provisions establishing the Office of Sheriff remains the same as it was in 1907, which, in turn, is strikingly similar to the functioning of the Office of Sheriff at the time of Alfred the Great and William the Conqueror. The major difference, of course, is that the Kings of England appointed their Sheriffs. From the earliest times in America, our Sheriffs have been elected by the people to serve as the principal law enforcement officer of each county. Oklahoma County marks its beginnings with Oklahoma Territory. It was one of the first 7 counties of Oklahoma, organized under the Organic Act passed by Congress on May 2, 1890. It was designated County Number 2 until voters named it Oklahoma County.

There have been 22 Sheriff’s of Oklahoma County. The first Sheriff was C.H. DeFord who took office on June 30, 1890, and served for 19 months through January 1892. The average length of service of all Sheriff's of Oklahoma County has been 5 years, with the longest being almost 26 years and the shortest 1 month. Clearly, the Sheriff is the only viable officer remaining of the ancient offices, and his contemporary responsibility as conservator of the peace has been influenced greatly by modern society. As the crossbow gave way to the primitive flintlock, the Sheriff is not unaccustomed to change. But now, perhaps more than ever before in history, law enforcement if faced with complex, moving, rapid changes in methodology, technology, and social attitudes. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in his The Value of Constitutions, "the Office of Sheriff is the most important of all the executive offices of the county."



Tommie Johnson III
Sheriff

Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office

2101 NE 36th St
Oklahoma City, OK 73111

405-713-1000
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