Steve Metzer
OKLAHOMA CITY — Nobody, let alone Tim Tipton, could have known in January that the Oklahoma City Thunder would be playing for the NBA championship beginning this week.
It just happened to be especially timely, then, that Tipton, who is Oklahoma’s commissioner of public safety, met Thursday with Gov. Kevin Stitt at the Capitol to announce the rollout of a comprehensive event safety guide nearly six months in the making.
The guide — available online for use by city councils, emergency responders, event planners and others across the state — is a result of the Secure Oklahoma NOW (Not on Our Watch) Initiative to raise the standard for coordinating and planning public events.
Stitt and Tipton spoke about the initiative and presented commemorative awards Thursday to about a dozen representatives of police and sheriffs’ departments and others who contributed to the guide.
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Of course, agencies such as the Department of Public Safety have been involved for decades in efforts to ensure security at public events. But Stitt said recent acts of terrorism, including an attack in January on people gathered to celebrate the new year in New Orleans, prompted him to ask Tipton and Secretary of Public Safety Tricia Everest to form the Secure Oklahoma NOW Advisory Council. Their efforts should help ensure security not only at mega-events like NBA championship games but also at smaller ones like concerts and parades.
Stitt said key contributors to the Secure Oklahoma NOW Initiative include:
• The Oklahoma Counter Terrorism Intelligence Center, which is available to conduct pre-event threat assessments statewide
• The Oklahoma Office of Homeland Security, which supports interagency coordination and emergency communications planning
• The Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, which has a drone response team that can help identify and mitigate suspicious drone activity at high-attendance events
Stitt said those agencies and others, including local and county emergency responders, also contribute to a broader public safety strategy. Elements of the strategy include the ProtectOK App, which offers Oklahomans a single platform to report suspicious behavior or threats; an Adopt-A-School Program that encourages Highway Patrol troopers to spend time in local schools in support of resource officers; and Operation Guardian, which was launched in 2024 to help address illegal immigration in Oklahoma.
In addition, the governor said efforts have been made to coordinate active shooter training for law enforcement agencies statewide and to conduct threat assessments in coordination with local school officials and others.
Stitt and Tipton encouraged all police, fire and emergency management agencies across Oklahoma to check out and adopt the best practices outlined in the Secure Oklahoma NOW guide.
“It’s heart-wrenching to see this evil that’s out there,” Stitt said, “and as we look forward to big events here in Oklahoma, I just want to make sure that Oklahoma is as well-prepared as we can be to address any threats.”
Tipton described the guide as a “living document” that will be modified as new technologies come along or new developments occur to affect event preparations and security. It can be accessed through the DPS website and others, including the websites of some cities and counties.
“It’s kind of ironic,” Tipton said, that the event security planning guide was introduced on the first day of the NBA championship series. Thousands of people from around the world were expected to converge on Oklahoma City for Game 1. The Thunder registered more than 650 members of the media from 28 countries to attend.
“We feel as though we’ve put together a good product,” Tipton said of the guide.
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steve.metzer@tulsaworld.com
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