Moore Police Chief shares more on department's role in national TV show

The Moore Police Department has been in the national spotlight for nearly a month after making an appearance on the show "On Patrol: Live." 

News 9 spoke to Moore Police Chief Todd Gibson about how his department has responded to the publicity and to learn more behind the scenes.

Q: How did you decide to allow your officers to be featured in this way?

A: A lot of it has to do with the confidence in the product that we're putting out, in the service that we do to our community. If I, as chief of police or administrator, didn't have tremendous trust and confidence in the culture and the operations of our police department, I probably wouldn't want to do this, right? But we have tremendous talent and provide policing services at a very high level to our community. It's just an opportunity to spotlight the great work that the men and women are doing every day. 

Q: What is it like being on national TV, watching your officers being featured moment by moment?

A: It's always a little bit of a delicate balance, and we want to ensure that we're upholding our culture and our values as an organization, which we take very seriously. We also want to give some grace to make sure that we're representing our community in a positive light. 

Q: Do you feel as though it's impacting the way your officers approach policing the streets from before? 

A: That would be a common conception, they would be changing their behavior because the cameras are on them now, but what I can tell you is that no, what you're seeing is very real and very authentic. That's the product that they provide every day, and we encourage that. We want them to be secure in who they are and the work that they do, and go out, whether they're being filmed on camera or have a body camera on, we want to be transparent. We don't change our behavior just because the media is there. 

Q: What has been the most shocking scenario or two that you've seen play out on live TV? 

A: Police work is full of shocking moments, and really, what was most interesting that you'll see is just human behavior is that interaction with people in crisis or people in need, and how our police officers treat them. There's been a variety of different things, from a simple traffic stop all the way to felony arrests, and to watch how people respond during those moments or how people respond in crisis, and then how our officers show up to inject some component of good into a bad situation. 

Q: What has been the community's overall response? 

A: Anytime you do something like this, there could be people who take things and make it a negative, and that's OK. We understand that there are lots of different opinions out there, but overwhelmingly, from a police department standpoint, both internally and externally from our community, we've seen a tremendous positive response and praise. What you saw in that example that you just talked about was a police officer exhibiting some grace. Grace is important in policing. The world is not black and white, and you don't want police officers who are hardline black and white, and don't have judgment and grace in how they deliver service. 

Q: Is it difficult to balance the transparency with sensitivity when you have critics who are saying, this could sensationalize policing? 

A: You're always going to have critics, and so we try to just hold true to who we are and the product that we want, the service product that we want to provide to our community. We established that first inside the building through leadership, through culture, and through training inside the building. Then the critics are going to go out, and you provide service and policing the way we expect you to, in the way our community expects us to deliver.