Sapulpa is a town that’s fortunate to have a Police Force to be reckoned with. Sapulpa Times’ Facebook Page often shares the stories from Tulsa news outlets that show Sapulpa Police handling car chases, robberies or vandals that cross the county lines.
Last month, we shared the story of Randal Arnold, a Sapulpa Policeman who’s currently serving overseas. He’ll be home in February.
If it’s any consolation, he’s certainly left us in good hands: His brother John Arnold is a deputy with the Creek County Sheriff’s Office.
“Cut from the same cloth” really seems like an understatement here.
John Arnold is also a Veteran, serving in the Anti Tank Training Company in Broken Arrow for The U.S. Marine Corp from 2002 to 2008.
According to John, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree at all: he says he grew up as “a cop’s kid,” and “never wanted to be more than a police officer.”
Unsurprisingly, John and Randal’s father also served in the Marines, and their grandfather served in the Army during WWII.
Seems like a hometown script for Blue Bloods if there ever was one. But while most of our experiences with police and military being “the family business” is relegated to Tom Selleck and his children on the popular CBS drama, the Arnold’s experience is much more true-to-life.
“I got my start in law enforcement by being a reserve police officer for a few small towns in Creek County,” John says. “Being a reserve police officer for a small town allowed me to work independently and I got to learn a lot about the law and how to be a cop.”
John says he enjoys the rural setting that Creek County has to offer and he claims “there are opportunities to work in areas of law enforcement (that) you do not get in larger agencies.”
So, how has having a brother on Sapulpa Police Department affected him?
“We understand each other,” he says. “We each understand what the other is going through and the issues that we each face.”
That’s not to say that his ears don’t perk up when he hears him come over the radio.
“When we are are both working and I can hear him responding to a critical incident or a dangerous call, I worry a little bit more because he is my brother,” John said.
“I take comfort in knowing that he is a good cop and trained well and he knows how to handle himself.”
“There is a saying, ‘I am my brother’s keeper.’ I take it to heart,” he says.
I asked if they’d ever had the chance to crack a case together. John says that although Randal and himself both work in a patrol function, and essentially have the same duties and responsibilities, they’ve never worked a case together, although they’ll occasionally respond to scenes together.
“If I’m in the area when he goes to a call or on a traffic stop, I will try to back him and vice versa,” John says.
He also pointed out that not being on the same law enforcement team doesn’t mean all things are equal, either.
“The major differences is that I work with fewer deputies on the shift, so I do not have the luxury of always having backup that Randal has working for a municipality with more officers on a shift,” John explained.
He continued, “I may have to do follow up investigations on a call I take, that in the same situation, Randal would pass it off to a detective.”
And of course having the same last name can be problematic at times.
“We have had the problem of our names getting mixed up in the Court Clerk’s Office,” John says. “I will receive subpoenas for cases he was involved in.”
The other question that frequently comes up: who’s the oldest?
“People assume that Randal is the older sibling because he has been in law enforcement longer than I have,” he explained. “I am always quick to correct them in the fact I am the oldest.”
John and Randal’s father, Randal Arnold, Sr., retired from the Sapulpa Police Department in 2002. John maintains that his and Randal Jr.’s decision to go into law enforcement was more about legacy than expectation.
“My dad never pushed us into law enforcement, John insisted. “From an early age he always let us know we could become whatever we wanted to be.”
“For Randal and I, we could not picture being anything else but police officers.”
