BA police chief to speak out after being put on administrative leave - then city letter forbids it

BROKEN ARROW, Okla. — Broken Arrow Police Chief Lance Arnold held a news conference to take questions as a private citizen about his administrative leave — but before he could, his attorneys say Arnold received a letter from the city directing him to make no further statements.

Attorney D. Mitchell Garrett Jr. addressed the letter directly.

"It directs that for the rest of his leave that Lance make no further statements personally or through others," Garrett said. "I'm going to tell you, they can tell their employees what they can do. They cannot tell me what they can do."

Arnold did make a brief statement at the news conference, saying his family learned about his administrative leave from media reports before he was able to tell them himself.

"My wife and my two sons read it on their phone before I could even get home and tell her myself," Arnold said.

Arnold also addressed the investigation directly.

"I want a fair investigation and I intend to cooperate with it," Arnold said. "I will attend the city's interview and answer its questions. I have preserved everything the city has asked me to preserve, and I will follow the directions the city has given me while I'm on leave."

Arnold's attorneys say the city has not told the chief what he is accused of. They also noted that open records requests from the law firm and multiple news agencies including KJRH regarding the situation have not yet been fulfilled.

"A lot of us have our open records request in for that email package," Garrett said. "They've released it to one media outlet. We're just asking them to put it on their website, release it to all the other media outlets. We've asked them to do that."

On Monday, Garrett responded to Arnold being placed on leave in a statement to the media. Garrett said Arnold acknowledged a policy violation in a March email and accepted ultimate responsibility. Garrett said the department later retrained officers on warrantless arrests and entries. Garrett also said the city has not provided further details about the allegations or policies at issue.

2 News Oklahoma reached out to Broken Arrow city offices for comment but was told that because this is an ongoing investigation, they have no comment at this time.

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