Eighteen laid-off Tulsa Police officers will return to the force; they were among the 21 TPD positions cut last week due to the current budget crisis.
"I've wanted to not just be a police officer, but be a Tulsa Police officer for over a decade now," Dan Lowry would get that chance in June when he graduated from TPD's academy.
Four short months later, this young father would be among 21 officers cut from the force.
Lowry says he wasn't surprised at the layoffs with the state of the budget, "It's been back and fourth since we graduated. The chief at our graduation said this was almost the class that never was. We actually found out we were going to graduate the day before graduation."
Lowry got another phone call just a week after getting a pink slip; this time to say he's coming back, "Relief, relief is definitely what I'm feeling."
"I was very relieved. Because, I didn't know how long it would take them to respond," Mayor Kathy Taylor heard from the Department of Justice late Monday afternoon.
It approved the redirection of funds from a recently awarded federal grant.
The 3-and-a-half million dollars will be used to rehire 18 officers.
"Our team got all the information in very quickly and they're seeing this happen all over the country. This is not the only request of this kind that they are getting," Mayor Taylor said.
The mayor is working with leaders of Tulsa's Police union to rehire the remaining 3 officers.
Fraternal Order of Police Vice President Ross Ford says 100-thousand dollars is needed for that to happen, "I am optimistic that within the next couple of days that the city and FOP will come together and find a way to bring these officers back."
"I'm definitely looking forward to the day that all 21 of us are where we're supposed to be," Officer Lowry says he the 17 other officers will meet at the academy for processing Tuesday morning.
They will officially be back on Wednesday.
Tulsa Public Schools hired the remaining three officers as temporary campus police.
