Cluck named Small Agency Chief of the Year

Every community is different, but they all need dependable law enforcement.

In Tuttle, that’s something residents have come to expect, and something Chief Don Cluck has helped build over the course of his career.

Cluck has worked for the Tuttle Police Department since 1989, and became Chief of Police 15 years later. He’s now held that role longer than he spent working his way up through the ranks. Monday marked the 21st anniversary since Cluck was appointed.

This year, Cluck was named Small Agency Chief of the Year by the Oklahoma Association of Chiefs of Police. In addition to leading his department, Cluck serves as secretary-treasurer on the OACP board and chairs the group’s small agency accreditation program: OLEAP.

With the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Accreditation Program, the OACP gives departments a structured way to prove they’re meeting professional standards. OLEAP evaluates law enforcement agencies statewide on a variety of criteria to ensure policies and practices are well-written and easily understood, that the agency practices those policies, and that they conduct themselves professionally, and with accountability. Agencies are evaluated in their use of force, evidence handling, mental health resources, and a lot more.

“Departments have to go through their standards and their policies,” Cluck said. “We come in and review them, and then we determine whether or not they meet those standards.”

“Larger departments naturally face more volume and complexity,” he added. “Some larger communities, you might not be able to just call them up and get them on the phone right now. In a smaller agency like ours, I’m fortunate to be more directly accessible to the public.”

Chief Cluck is humble, understated. That’s because he serves the people of Tuttle, not his own ego. The reason he can take a random citizen’s call in the middle of the afternoon is because he hires well, his training officers are capable, and dispatchers manage operations like somebody’s life might depend on it.

He might not have as many calls, but that makes every one more personal, not just procedural.

Being part of a smaller agency is something Chief Cluck appreciates. It made it easier for him to communicate the necessity for a new TPD headquarters that the people of Tuttle got behind in November 2019 by passing a bond for a new police station.

Being the leader of a smaller agency gives Chief Cluck the ability to institute policies that show grace, to see to it that folks in Tuttle are looked after with insistence that the law be followed, not chased down for capital.

A smaller community means a healthier gossip chain. A lot of gossip can make it easy to find someone. And there’s someone Chief Cluck has been looking for.

Cluck said traffic enforcement sometimes draws criticism, especially from people claiming to have been ticketed for going just a few miles over the limit.

“If you find the person we gave a 1–5 over ticket to, do me a favor and send them my way,” Cluck wrote in a 2022 public post.

He also pointed out that more than two-thirds of traffic stops end in warnings, and only 22% result in tickets. The department’s year-to-date numbers in May 2022 showed 1,765 traffic stops, leading to 1,233 warnings, 398 tickets, and 98 arrests, including one stop that led to the seizure of 113 grams of methamphetamine.

“Traffic stops yield about 95% of the arrests you see on our weekly activity report,” Cluck said.

As far as that 5 mph over ticket, “I still haven’t seen one,” the chief said.

Outside of department business, Cluck has spent years restoring a 1954 Mercury that he now drives in local parades.

He’s also worked with the Tuttle Historical Society, which is led by his wife Debbie Cluck and Tuttle City Clerk Wendy Marble. Don has helped trace the town’s early law enforcement history, as far back as possible to find many of its former marshals and night watchmen, including August Nowka who was killed in a gunfight in Tuttle in 1939. There is an extensive background on that matter on the Tuttle Police Department Facebook page that Chief Cluck posted May 12 & 13.

“That history matters,” he said. “I think it’s important. I think it’s important for the city to have this Historical Society.”

Tuttle is definitely worth it, and Chief of Police Don Cluck dedicating 36 years to keeping it safe is undoubtedly one of the reasons why.