by Michael Bush,

managing editor

Altus Police Detective Captain Michael Turner has been named Assistant Chief of Police. Turner’s position became effective as of June 1 after the resignation of Mike Howeth who recently re-retired after 39 years on the force. Howeth plans to spend more time with his wife, Brenda and their seven grandchildren, and take some RV vacations and see the countryside.

Turner’s career with law enforcement began with the Altus Police Department on December 16, 1992. Prior to that time, he received training as a reserve police officer with the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training (CLEET), being sponsored by the City of Altus Police Department.

Since his career began with the Altus Police Department, Turner has been designated as a Master Officer and was promoted to the position of Detective in 1997. In November 2003 he was promoted to the position of Detective Lieutenant, and on April 22, 2005, he was promoted to Detective Captain.

In addition to his employment with the City of Altus, Turner is an adjunct instructor at Western Oklahoma State College in the Criminal Justice Department. His classes include Traffic, Patrol, Criminal Investigations, Legal Matters, and Community Relations.

Aside from his police work, Turner is currently active in the community through Main Street Altus. He currently is acting as Chairman for Rock-n-Rumble, a position he has held for the past four years. Prior to this he served as Co-Chairman for two years. He has also served within the Main Street Altus program as President, Vice President and Program Manager.

In his spare time, Turner enjoys working on classic cars and trucks. He has worked on countless vehicle projects over the years and currently is working on a 1968 Chevy pickup.

Turner was born in Altus, attended Altus Schools, and graduated from Navajo High School in 1990.

He is the son of Barbara and Kenneth Sweat of Memphis, Texas. He has one daughter, Kaylee, who was also born in Altus and still lives in the area.

When looking on his future career in law enforcement, Turner said that he has seen the way they do things change over the years, and expects to see more changes in the years to come.

“Technology has definitely changed the way we do things, and even with the ever-growing advances with computer technology, I still plan on continuing to deal with the citizens of Altus face-to-face and in the personal manner that is not only expected, but deserved.”

His plans with the members of the Altus Police Force include more in-house training, including state-mandated training.

Turner received his Advanced Law Enforcement Certification in February 2002 and has attended over 1,400 hours of advanced police training. These advanced trainings included courses on homicide/death scene investigations, computer forensic investigations, child abuse/sex crime investigations, firearms trainings, fraud investigations, and hostage negotiations.

Turner has been to numerous conferences on homicide/crime scenes and child abuse investigations, and is a CLEET Certified Instructor, a CLEET Reserve Officer Academy Coordinator, and has attended CLEET Management Trainings.

In February 2002, he received the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Directors Award for Law Enforcement for his efforts in combating lewd and indecent acts against children over the Internet.

In 2003, he was an active team member of the Police Department’s Standard Operating Procedures Manual (SOP) re-write committee. We began the overwhelming task of re-writing the outdated SOP. The result was a policy manual that was agreed upon by both the Fraternal Order of Police and the City of Altus. This manual was later implemented and is still in effect today.

In 2007 Turner acted as the Reserve Police Academy Coordinator for CLEET Reserve Academy # 07BR9-2. The duties as the Coordinator required not only scheduling of staff to conduct the classroom trainings but also required actual instruction to the students in many areas.