Colbert fires police chief

COLBERT, Okla. (KXII) - After meeting behind closed doors in an executive session for nearly an hour Monday night, the Colbert city council voted to terminate police chief David Petersen.

Colbert’s Mayor and City Council wouldn’t comment on Petersen’s termination during the meeting or afterwards.

Some residents were pleased while others were not, and had questions.

Petersen had been Colbert Chief of Police since 2017. When he was hired, the city knew that he had been fired from Pushmataha County Sheriff’s office in October of 2016. Petersen also had an arrest record and embezzlement case that was later dropped. At that time, Petersen told News 12 that all of the incidents were a misunderstanding.

A few months after Petersen was hired in Colbert, he was put back in the spotlight when a photo went viral of him flashing an obscene gesture with teen girls.

Citizens we spoke to at Monday night’s meeting have an idea of who is next in line to be Police Chief.

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