Five Nowata Police Officers, which include a police captain, K9 officer, police sergeant and reserve officer, handed in their letter of resignation today, effective immediately. One of the resigning officers Elliot Harris says there were multiple smaller concerning issues and then one bigger issue that led them to speak with the city manager.

Harris says being asked to skip steps or do something that could be considered illegal was not something they wanted to do and took this information to the city manager.

Harris says the city manager took the information to the police chief soon after their meeting and therefore due to a lack of trust and fear of retaliation the officers felt the need to resign. Nowata Police Chief Mike McElhaney had no comment on the matter.