The Tulsa Police Department on Monday announced the arrest of one of their own officers in connection with an alleged on-duty drunk driving incident in which he crashed his patrol car into another vehicle.
In a news release, TPD said Officer Todd Snedegar was arrested on the morning of Saturday, July 3, after he called in his own crash near 4000 S. Memorial Dr. to dispatchers.
"The initial investigation suggested that Snedegar was at fault and had collided with the vehicle in front of him at the stoplight," TPD said in the release. "During the investigation, a patrol supervisor on scene detected the odor associated with alcohol on Snedegar's breath."
No injuries were reported, TPD said.
Snedegar later registered a 0.11% blood alcohol concentration reading on a breath test device, above the legal limit of .08%. He was then arrested on charges of driving under the influence and possession of a firearm -- his service weapon -- while intoxicated, and booked into the Tulsa County Jail.
Reached by phone Tuesday morning, TPD Capt. Richard Meulenberg said Snedegar has since been placed on restricted duty.
"Basically, he's not allowed to drive a city car. He doesn't have his weapon. He is still being paid, but basically he's doing some administrative work while the investigation continues," Meulenberg said. "We'll do the criminal investigation first, and once that's settled we do the internal investigation."
Meulenberg said while the arrest took place on July 3, the department decided to put out a release Monday upon getting their first press inquiries about the incident.
"We weren't waiting on anything," Meulenberg said. "We don't release every single thing that we do, obviously, but every arrest is public record, and so honestly it was just something -- we did make the arrest, it was public record immediately, so that information was available, and what happened was we started getting a couple inquiries [Monday]. So based on the fact that a couple people had asked, we thought, well, it's likely that more people are going to ask, so let's just put a release out."
Meulenberg said the arrest suggests that TPD holds officers accountable for their actions.
"I know there's been some thoughts that maybe we, in the past -- or other agencies -- have just kind of tried to sweep things under the carpet, but, you know, we're 100% that this officer made a poor choice that morning, our supervisors and officers responded, and we arrested him. There was no special treatment given to him. He was arrested," Meulenberg said.
