In five years, harm-reduction organizations distributed hundreds of thousands of sterile needles and syringes to drug users across Oklahoma, potentially saving lives and significantly reducing viral infection rates.

The state law protecting the organizations from criminal prosecution sunsets July 1, effectively grinding the work to a halt. 

The organizations that run sterile syringe exchange and distribution programs are preparing to enter a new legal grey area. Some workers said they’ll continue despite the legal risk. Others said they won’t distribute needles or syringes anymore but will instead refocus efforts on distributing Narcan, a legal drug that reverses opioid overdoses.

Proponents of harm reduction said without the full breadth of syringe programs, people will die. 

The Oklahoma State Department of Health estimated the organizations distributed 1.25 million syringes between 2022 and 2025, reaching more than 8,800 people in an attempt to minimize the negative results from drug use, such as increased risk of Hepatitis C, HIV infection and 

overdose deaths. Harm reduction organizations said sustained contact with people who use drugs, such as weekly exchanges of syringes, leads to higher chances of rehabilitation than arrests and imprisonment.  

One organization, the Oklahoma Harm Reduction Alliance, distributed an average of 35,000 syringes per year since the law passed in 2021. To date, the group estimated they’ve prevented about 300 overdoses.

“That’s 300 families that we got saved together,” said Tyler Read, who’s been working with the alliance since 2021. “We kept them from that tragedy.”

The alliance typically meets on Thursdays at 10 a.m. in a small office in Tulsa, a quarter of a mile off of Highway 64, to place sterile syringes in discrete packaging. They average 150 to 200 kits, totaling 300 to 400 syringes, per shift. The team met for one last syringe packaging push on June 25, six days out from the law’s expiration.

The physical space is tiny and crowded with boxes of syringes, drug testing strips and naloxone. Its walls are adorned with posters celebrating Pride month and photos of artists who overdosed. A portrait of Mac Miller, a popular rapper who died from an accidental overdose in 2022, sits above two tangerines being used as props for an intramuscular naloxone demonstration. 

Since 2021, the alliance has distributed sterile syringes to all 77 counties in the state and maintained a physical presence in seven counties, hosting tabling events and operating monthly clinics, as well as four 24-hour syringe takeback kiosks.  

It’s not uncommon for the children of volunteers to join, especially during the summer when school is out. It’s a middle schooler-friendly environment, Executive Director Josh Ellard said. 

Laurel Taylor, secretary for the alliance, first got involved with the group while pursuing a related Ph.D. She’s stayed involved because the matter is personal; her ex-husband used drugs before his death. Their son, Isaac, sometimes tags along to the kit-making shifts. 

“He understands that this is about saving lives, having made these overdose reversal kits,” Taylor said.

Her son understands that the kits can save people much like his father. 

Funding is perpetually an issue because syringes can not be purchased with state grants. But it makes injection safer, Ellard said, and so it’s worth it.

Injection drugs are an inherently dangerous practice. People who participate in intravenous, intramuscular or subcutaneous substance use are at higher risk of overdose or addiction than their counterparts who consume drugs nasally or by smoking. Sharing needles turns the risks into a larger public health crisis. The intravenous spread of Hepatitis C is especially of concern: In 2023, Oklahoma recorded the highest Hepatitis C death rate in the nation. 

A 2024 Center for Disease Control and Prevention report found that 19% of people who inject drugs, some 3.6 million people a year, according to the most recent estimates of researchers, share needles.

Sterile syringe programs are associated with a 50% decrease in HIV and Hepatitis C contraction among people who inject drugs, a 2024 CDC study reported.

Discarded, used needles present a threat to anybody who comes into contact with them, including law enforcement. A 2009 study authored by researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Yale University found that one in three officers experienced a needle-stick injury at some point in their careers.

Protecting law enforcement officers motivated Carol Bush, along with Sen. John Montgomery, to file the bill in 2021, when she was a state representative. The two hoped the focus on public safety would bridge the partisan divide that often limits the success of harm reduction proposals.

The bill also hinged on the idea that syringe service programs could establish entry points for addiction treatment. 

“One thing that folks are really uncomfortable with hearing is that if somebody’s engaging in substance use, particularly with injectable drugs, they’re going to continue that regardless of the access that they have to a clean syringe or not,” said Brittany Hayes, senior vice president of policy at Healthy Minds Policy Initiative. 

Under Senate Bill 511, harm-reduction organizations said they had better chances of establishing relationships with people using drugs and connecting them with treatment without the threat of criminal charges. 

“What I think sometimes gets lost in these conversations is that harm-reduction is really about keeping people alive and healthy long enough to access treatment and care when they’re ready,” said Jeff Burdge, director of development and communications for HOPE Tulsa, which distributed more than 419,000 sterile syringes through safer injection kids in 2025. “Every person who walks through our doors deserves that opportunity.”

Oklahoma was one of 37 states that allowed syringe service programs as of May, according to a report by the Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association. 

Bush said her initial plan was never to set a five-year limit on the bill, but she saw it as the only feasible way to get it through a politically divided, conservative legislature after it had failed the previous year. Bush said she and her conservative colleagues agreed to circle back after five years and figure out if the sterile syringe programs had helped lower Hepatitis C and HIV infections and reduce the number of law enforcement agents who’d been poked with needles on the job. Then, they could adjust the law based on what was working. 

“I’m not sure that conversation ever happened,” said Bush, who didn’t seek re-election in 2022. 

With Bush and Montgomery no longer serving in the legislature, Rep. Daniel Pae, R-Lawton, in 2025, proposed a renewal bill. He was cautiously optimistic. 

And then, in July of 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for heightened scrutiny of harm-reduction programs and ordering a crackdown on programs that couldn’t prove they had true positive effects. 

Pae said the executive order put conservative colleagues who’d previously supported harm-reduction legislation in a difficult spot. And people wanted more data than the organizations could provide. Collecting and sharing data about illegal substance use is hard while maintaining anonymity and sensitivity. 

In Indiana, a similar bill extending harm-reduction became law with a new requirement that people seeking sterile syringes must present an ID, a component that has faced widespread pushback. 

Pae’s 2025 successor bill, HB 2012, initially sought to remove the July 1 sundown date altogether. The version that passed in the House established a one-year extension, but the bill was never heard on the Senate floor, effectively killing it. 

Pae plans to introduce another extension bill in the next legislative session. 

Until then, any organization that continues to distribute syringes faces potential legal consequences. In Oklahoma, possession or distribution of drug paraphernalia carries a maximum sentence of up to a year in jail and fines up to $10,000. 

Michael Olson, policy counsel for Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform, said criminalizing the distribution of sterile syringes is a mistake. 

“We’re trying to solve this problem in a way that doesn’t really make sense,” he said. “We’re talking about a public health problem that requires a public health solution.”

Groups such as Oklahoma Harm Reduction Alliance know that sterile syringe exchange does not solve drug addiction. But advocates of harm reduction remain steady in their commitment to the communities they serve.

“We’re doing a different kind of good,” Read, from the alliance, said. “It’s not for everybody obviously. But it’s important to the people who it’s important to. It’s very important to them and they need us.”

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said sterile syringe programs boil down to a simple question: “Do we want to keep active users and those impacted by active users in the community, safer or less safe?” The state, he said, has chosen the latter. 

The Cherokee Nation launched a harm reduction program in 2023 and has safely disposed of 160,000 dirty or used syringes, distributed at least 160,000 sterile syringes and handed out more than 20,000 doses of Narcan since. 

The affected groups are determined to continue their work to the extent permitted by law. For Oklahoma Harm Reduction Alliance, the list of services they’ll continue to provide is long, including naloxone and Plan-B distribution and used syringe takeback and disposal. For the Cherokee Nation’s Harm Reduction Program, it means a continued concerted effort to get Narcan into the hands of people who use drugs and combat Hepatitis C infections. 

“We’ll continue to do a job to the extent the law allows us to,” Hoskin Jr. said. “Unfortunately, the law is going to result in more people sick or dying.”

Maya Henry is a summer 2026 intern at Oklahoma Watch. Contact her at mhenry@oklahomawatch.org.

The post “More People Sick or Dying”: After Five Years of Sterile Syringe Distributions, Harm Reduction Law Set to Expire appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

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While driving to a homeless encampment site outside downtown Oklahoma City, Cryslynn Barnes described her job as pregaming the first steps to housing people experiencing homelessness. Sitting in the passenger seat next to her, Stephanie Risenhoover concurred.

Barnes and Risenhoover work on the street outreach team for Mental Health Association Oklahoma, one partner to Key to Home, Oklahoma City’s public-private collaboration that strives to prevent homelessness in the city.

The organization’s housing-first approach has proven successful, but the cumbersome, time-consuming process has posed challenges. There are several roadblocks on the path to housing, including the rental property inspection process to ensure habitability.

There were 75 people living at an encampment on SW 21st and Western. Sixty-five were housed through the Key to Home initiative, most in 30 to 60 days. Seven people took 60 to 90 days due to problems arising during the inspection process, said Amy Coldren, the advocacy and communications director for Mental Health Association Oklahoma.

Advocates for people experiencing homelessness said the additional time spent outside heightens the risk for an unhoused person to fall further into chronic homelessness. Landlords said the inspection process is burdensome and can neglect tenants’ needs.

Deborah Jenkins, the Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency executive director, said the organization follows the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development protocol for the Housing Choice Voucher Program and cannot ignore HUD’s inspection protocol.

Steps Toward Housing

Street outreach workers, such as Barnes and Risenhoover, are often the first contact to get into the Key to Home program. The outreach workers typically don’t see the results, but they do see the barriers along the way to housing.

Barnes said minimal affordable housing and limited shelter space lead to people living outdoors and missing items, such as ID’s and birth certificates, can keep them there. And housing voucher inspections that fail can add an extra barrier.

The street outreach team tries to lower those barriers. That includes obtaining birth certificates, IDs, driver’s licenses, and Social Security cards to help unhoused people take the next step toward housing. And though nearly 50 organizations are working together through the program, resource constraints are another hurdle.

“The biggest hurdle that we have is resource constriction,” Jamie Caves, the Key to Home strategy implementation manager, said. “We are only serving a very small percentage of the population that needs supportive services.”

Caves said the system cannot keep up with the inflow. More people are falling into homelessness than are being lifted out.

The barriers play one part in keeping people unhoused, but an increase in people experiencing homelessness can be credited to the minimal affordable housing stock and evictions.

“We are really good at evicting people in Oklahoma,” Caves said.

She added that people leaving correctional facilities and young people in child protective services are also falling into homelessness.

“As the time you experience homelessness grows, so do the barriers,” Caves said. “We really want people that are experiencing long-term homelessness to decrease. We want to be thoughtful and focused on finding solutions and opportunities for them to move out of the homeless response system and back into stability.”

Caves said the housing inspections for the voucher programs are conducted before anyone moves into the unit, but sometimes it can be challenging. Still, she said it’s important.

“Everybody deserves decent housing,” Caves said.

Housing Inspections

Jenkins, the Oklahoma Housing Finance Authority executive director, said the inspections happen before anyone moves in.

“For Key to Home and other organizations that are trying to rapidly house the unhoused, we conduct pre-inspections,” Jenkins said. “The inspection is done before the family or individual is ready to occupy the unit; that way, there is not a delay.”

Both Jenkins and Holley Mangham, the communications director for the Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency, said that the inspections followed the federal guidelines set under the NSPIRE inspection standards and could not be altered.

Mangham provided Oklahoma Watch a list containing the most common reasons units don’t pass inspections:

• Electrical outlets six feet from standing water lack the required GFCI protection.
• Smoke alarms are non‑compliant.
• Electrical power is not active in units.
• Air conditioning systems are not functioning.
• Required appliances are missing.
• Interior and exterior excessive debris, and not in move-in-ready condition.
• Windows are broken or damaged.
• Pest infestation, including roaches and mice.
• Water heaters are missing the required safety discharge lines.

“What we can’t do is ignore HUD’s inspection protocol,” Jenkins said.

Joel Wilson, the Simple Property Management CEO, said that the housing vouchers and inspections can be difficult and time-consuming.

In Oklahoma, there’s a landlord shortage for people receiving rental assistance.

While the common reasons units do not pass inspections are large-scale problems, Wilson said, small things such as cracked light-switch plates can get flagged and need to be fixed before the next inspection.

“In the meantime, the owner is not getting the income, and the tenant is without a home or the ability to move from wherever they are currently at,” Wilson said.

Stephanie Newman, the street outreach and rapid response coordinator for Mental Health Association Oklahoma, said that small problems should not be disqualifying because shelter is still better than living outside.

Newman said landlord accountability also plays a part in the barriers to housing.

“If they are accepting subsidies, they already know what a subsidies inspection should entail,” she said.

Wilson said the process can be costly and leave a landlord questioning how necessary the repair is.

“Unfortunately, the thought that comes to their mind is, ‘Have we had our Section 8 inspection, and is it required by them?’” Wilson said. “Because, if we do this and then in three months our Section 8 inspection comes up, and they come up with another $800, $1200 worth of fluff that doesn’t actually need to be done, we could have put that into something meaningful and useful for the longevity of the property and the tenant.”

Housing Rehabilitation

The many barriers to housing boil down to the cost, availability and habitability.

Oklahoma lacks the necessary affordable and available housing, with an 84,125-unit shortfall, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

That leads to renters being priced out, creating more homelessness. It also makes it more difficult for agencies to house people. And it makes it costly for landlords willing to rent to people with a housing voucher.

Shannon Entz, the housing strategy implementation manager tasked with implementing Oklahoma City’s affordable housing plan, said there’s progress toward increasing the quality incentives offered to develop and rehabilitate properties across the city.

She said that most homes that don’t pass inspection are likely aging and need safety measures and maintenance to make them habitable.

“There are a lot of good landlords and people who would like to be able to offer this, but they need help with the HVAC, or a new roof, or if there’s a leak, but they don’t have the cash to pay for the full amount to get that unit to an acceptable level for someone with a voucher,” Entz said.

Entz said Oklahoma City is developing programs to assist landlords in rehabilitating affordable properties, thereby expanding the city’s housing stock.

Aside from rehabilitation, development is also a priority for increasing the affordable housing stock. One property that recently opened is the Crossroads at NE Grand Blvd.

Entz said that money from the American Rescue Plan Act and the Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency helped develop the project.

“Our mission right now is to get more units, and they (Key to Home) will utilize them,” Entz said. “Our office focuses on the development of new housing as well as rehabbing existing homes, and they will make sure they make connections for people to find those units.”

Newman, the street outreach and rapid response coordinator, said that collaboration was necessary and that property owners should be involved.

“I believe that solutions can be found by bringing property owners to the table,” Newman said.

Jake Ramsey covers evictions, housing and homelessness. Contact him at (405) 370-3798 or jramsey@oklahomawatch.org.

The post Housing Voucher Inspections Are Slowing Oklahoma City’s Effort to Close Encampments appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Amid the farm fields of northwest Oklahoma City, a place where high-voltage power lines converge has attracted interest from two data center developers, each seeking to build at the western terminus of a new $72 million transmission project.

The Mathewson Substation, a nondescript complex of power lines and equipment on NW 248^th Street near Piedmont in southeastern Kingfisher County, has become a highly sought-after location to tap into Oklahoma’s power grid.

“That’s one of the strongest points on the electrical grid in the state of Oklahoma,” said Aaron Bilyeu, chief development officer with Houston-based Cloverleaf Infrastructure, one of the companies seeking to build a large-scale data center for artificial intelligence in Piedmont.

For years, electrical grid planners worried about a problem most Oklahomans never knew existed. Power flowing into the western side of the Oklahoma City metro area could become congested during periods of heavy demand or when transmission resources are unavailable.

The solution identified by planners at the Southwest Power Pool, the regional organization responsible for coordinating the electric grid across a 14-state region that includes Oklahoma, was a new 345-kilovolt transmission line connecting the Mathewson Substation with the Redbud Energy Facility near Luther.

Today, that corridor and the adjacent areas are attracting the attention of a different group entirely.

In addition to Cloverleaf, Atlanta-based Beltline Energy, a renewable energy and industrial development company, has proposed data center projects in multiple communities, including Piedmont, Yukon, Oklahoma City and Luther. Company materials describe Beltline as a developer with expertise in utility-scale energy projects, including industrial real estate and electrical transmission analysis.

While Cloverleaf executives agreed to interviews for this story, Beltline Energy declined repeated opportunities to discuss its Oklahoma plans. Requests for comment sent to the company and its legal representatives were not returned.

Each proposal has generated its own local debate, and the clustering of the projects has raised a broader question: Why are multiple developers interested in the same part of Oklahoma?

The answer appears to be rooted in the electrical grid. In some places, the connections are better than in others.

Bilyeu described his company’s approach to that of a shopping center developer. The company looks for a location to build and will later find someone to occupy the facility once it is constructed. The ultimate user could be a company like Google, Meta or Microsoft. Or it could be someone else entirely. But just like a developer of retail space, Bilyeu knows the key to success is location.

“And from an electrical engineering perspective, that really is a great place for a data center,” Bilyeu said. “Which is why we’ve optioned the land that we have directly adjacent to it.”

Data centers have always required large amounts of electricity, but artificial intelligence is changing the scale.

The newest generation of AI-focused facilities can consume hundreds of megawatts of power. The largest projects can require as much electricity as a small city.

“There’s not many locations on the grid that can actually serve them without triggering massive transmission upgrades,” said Jonathan Abebe, chief technical officer with Cloverleaf.

Abebe said companies first look for locations connected to robust high-voltage transmission systems capable of supporting large electrical loads. New transmission projects can take years to permit and build, making existing infrastructure especially valuable.

For Cloverleaf, the search for a place that met all their requirements led to the Mathewson Substation.

Multiple 345-kilovolt lines converge at the site, creating a major node on the regional grid. To developers searching for large amounts of reliable power, those connections can be as important as highways, rail lines or waterways were to earlier generations of industrial development.

The transmission infrastructure drawing developers today was not originally designed for them.

Seth Blomeley, senior communications strategist for Southwest Power Pool, said the Mathewson-Redbud project emerged from the organization’s transmission-planning process years before data centers became a major factor in their planning.

“This line will provide a path for load to also be served from the east,” Blomeley said. “That additional transmission source will greatly benefit the customers in the area, especially during times of stress in the system.”

In May 2025, SPP selected Transource Oklahoma to construct the approximately 38-mile, 345-kilovolt transmission line. The project is expected to enter service in 2027.

Michael Harris, a Transource Oklahoma outreach specialist, said relieving congestion effectively gives grid operators more options to move electricity around the system when demand spikes, equipment fails or severe weather disrupts normal operations.

“By adding capacity and improving network resiliency, projects like Mathewson-Redbud give the grid more flexibility to serve growth while maintaining reliable electric service,” Harris said in a written response.

While projects such as Mathewson-Redbud are planned primarily to meet reliability needs, Harris acknowledged that stronger transmission infrastructure can also affect economic development decisions. Reliable transmission service is an important consideration for large industrial and technology projects with significant electricity requirements, he said.

The relationship between transmission investment and economic development can be difficult to separate.

Oklahoma State University industrial engineering professor Sunderesh Heragu compared the phenomenon to building a new highway, where new infrastructure often attracts additional activity and investment.

“It is very likely that new transmission corridors will attract more customers requiring more energy, until the supply-demand finds an equilibrium,” Heragu said.

Abebe said transmission planners generally anticipate that growth when designing major projects. Utilities and regional grid operators evaluate projected demand as part of the planning process, he said, helping to ensure new infrastructure continues to serve its intended purpose even as additional customers arrive.

The story unfolding between Piedmont and Luther is part of a much larger shift occurring across the central United States.

In its 2025 Integrated Transmission Planning Assessment, Southwest Power Pool identified accelerating load growth as the largest driver of future transmission needs across its 14-state service area.

For decades, annual growth in electricity demand was relatively modest. Then came a wave of new large-load customers.

Projects that replace older systems with electric ones, new manufacturing facilities, and data centers began seeking service at a pace that outstripped the traditional timeline for building transmission infrastructure.

The surge in demand is also changing how planners think about the transmission grid itself.

For nearly two decades, Southwest Power Pool expanded a regional network built around 345-kilovolt transmission lines, creating a backbone that today serves Oklahoma and a region that stretches from Montana to portions of New Mexico and Arkansas. But planners now argue that projected growth is large enough to require another leap forward.

The latest planning assessment concludes that continuing to rely primarily on 345-kilovolt construction would be increasingly costly and inefficient as demand accelerates.

“Continuing down the path of building only 345 kV transmission would require four to seven times more infrastructure to deliver the same capacity as 765 kV,” the report states.

SPP compares local transmission lines to city streets, while higher voltage lines, such as the 345-kilovolt lines that intersect at the Mathewson Substation, are like highways. The proposed 765-kilovolt system would serve as an interstate network capable of moving much larger amounts of electricity over long distances. As demand rises, planners argue, simply adding more lower-voltage lines would be akin to widening local roads when an entirely new interstate highway is needed.

“The best path forward to address the challenges the SPP members are facing is to invest in new extra-high-voltage ‘expressways’ — a 765 kV backbone capable of carrying large amounts of power quickly and reliably across the footprint,” the report states.

Without those investments, SPP warns that growing electrical demand could lead to increasing congestion, reliability concerns and higher costs for consumers.

SPP projects demand within its region will nearly double over the next decade. National forecasts point in the same direction. Earlier this month, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projected that electricity consumption would continue rising through 2027, driven largely by AI-related data centers and broader electrification trends.

The result is a scramble for locations that already possess the infrastructure necessary to support major electrical loads.

Oklahoma officials said access to electricity has become one of the state’s strongest selling points as communities compete for data center investment.

Jay Shidler, director of business recruitment for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, said power availability is often the single most important factor in site selection decisions.

“Electricity is number one,” Shidler said. “It’s the driver. The availability of power and the 345-kilovolt lines are the driver in the site selection process.”

Shidler said companies typically evaluate electricity first, followed by land availability and workforce considerations.

“It drives economic demand, not only in just the data center industry, but multiple industries: manufacturing, aerospace, and defense.”

He said Oklahoma’s competitive advantages include relatively low electricity costs, available generating capacity and a regulatory environment that allows companies to scale their power needs over time.

Electrical infrastructure is not the only factor developers consider.

Heragu said developers typically evaluate power availability, water resources, telecommunications connectivity and land.

“All are necessary conditions,” he said. “None by itself is sufficient.”

Telecommunications infrastructure also factors into site-selection decisions. Information provided by Lumen Technologies described fiber networks as foundational infrastructure for AI data centers, alongside power and land. The company said AI workloads require unprecedented volumes of data movement between cloud regions, data centers and computing clusters, increasing demand for high-capacity fiber connectivity.

However, fiber can be laid relatively quickly while electrical transmission capacity can take years to develop, making existing grid infrastructure particularly valuable and helping explain why multiple developers can independently arrive at similar conclusions about where to build.

Not everyone views the prospect of large-scale data center development as an opportunity.

Residents in several communities along the corridor have raised concerns about the size of proposed projects, their potential impact on water resources, noise, traffic and local character. Public meetings in Piedmont, Yukon and Luther have drawn residents seeking more information about developments that could consume hundreds of megawatts of electricity and occupy hundreds of acres.

In both Luther and Yukon, disputes over transparency became part of the debate. Residents in Luther criticized city officials for signing a nondisclosure agreement with a developer during preliminary discussions about a proposed project. In Yukon, residents questioned city leaders after Mayor Brian Pillmore confirmed the city’s former manager signed a nondisclosure agreement with Beltline before the project was publicly disclosed. Some residents characterized the process as a “backroom agreement” and said too much information had been withheld from the public.

Others questioned whether communities were prepared for projects on that scale and whether sufficient information had been provided about potential impacts on water use, electrical demand and future development.

Meanwhile, landowners along the proposed Mathewson-Redbud transmission route have expressed concerns about the 110-foot transmission structures planned for the project and the impact new easements could have on their property.

State and local officials have also begun examining how existing regulations apply to data centers. Oklahoma City and Edmond both recently adopted a temporary moratorium on certain new data center applications while city staff review potential zoning and development standards. Piedmont officials have likewise wrestled with questions about where such facilities should be located and what conditions should apply.

The prospect of increasingly large electrical loads has also attracted the attention of state policymakers.

Rep. Brad Boles, R-Marlow, said lawmakers approved House Bill 2992, the Data Center Consumer Ratepayer Protection Act, to ensure that large-load customers such as data centers pay the infrastructure costs associated with serving their projects rather than shifting those costs onto residential customers.

“We’re not trying to stop economic development,” Boles said. “What we do want is to make sure that Oklahoma consumers and families aren’t bearing the cost.”

HB 2992 is intended to protect residential and small-business utility customers from bearing the costs of electrical infrastructure built to serve large-load users, such as data centers and cryptocurrency mining operations. The measure requires those customers to pay their share of generation, transmission and other infrastructure costs and directs regulators to ensure those expenses are not shifted to other ratepayers. It also requires advance public notice and community meetings before certain large-load developments acquire property for proposed projects.

The law also requires financial assurances if those costs are recovered over time, so that utility customers are protected if the user defaults before the costs are fully recovered.

“It was considered probably the most aggressive ratepayer protection bill in the country this year, and Oklahoma’s leading the way on that,” Boles said.

Boles said lawmakers were responding to voters worried that utility bills could increase if the costs of serving large data centers were spread across the broader consumer base.

“All the members in the legislature, they’re hearing from their constituents and they’re hearing the same concerns,” Boles said.

The measure was one of two passed in recent legislative sessions to address concerns over data centers and other large energy users.

In 2025, lawmakers approved Senate Bill 480, known as the “Behind the Meter” law, allowing businesses to develop and operate their own electric generation and power facilities. Supporters said it would encourage investment by large manufacturers, data centers and artificial intelligence facilities while reducing pressure on the electric grid by allowing some projects to generate their own power.

The Mathewson-Redbud transmission line was designed to solve a reliability problem.

However, before construction is complete, it has already helped transform the area into one of the most sought-after locations for data center development in Oklahoma.

Although it’s unknown if all the proposed projects will ultimately move forward, it is clear that access to electrical infrastructure has become a deciding factor in the competition for AI investment.

For developers, planners and policymakers alike, the future of economic development increasingly runs through the power grid.

Stephen Martin is an Oklahoma City-based journalist and contributor to Oklahoma Watch. Contact him at smartin0170@gmail.com.

The post A Transmission Line Built to Fix Grid Congestion Has Become Oklahoma’s Hottest Data Center Address appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Oklahoma produced 2.9 times more energy than it consumed at 4,393.8 trillion Btu in 2023, ranking eighth in the nation in energy production.

The industrial sector accounted for 40% of energy consumption, while the residential and commercial sectors accounted for 15% and 14%, respectively.

Natural gas accounted for the vast majority of the energy produced in Oklahoma at 76%, followed by crude oil at 20% and renewable sources at 3%. Oklahoma generally produces three to four times as much natural gas as it consumes; the excess is either stored in in-state storage fields or transported interstate.

Natural gas and wind energy accounted for 50% and 41% of Oklahoma’s electricity production, respectively.

Despite an unusual rate of electricity bill increases, Oklahoma residents are protected from further increases directly caused by large data centers, per a recently passed law.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Oklahoma Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims.

Sources

• U.S. Energy Information Administration Total primary energy production and total energy consumption estimates in trillion Btu, 2023
• U.S. Energy Information Administration Table P2. Primary energy production estimates in trillion Btu, 2023
• U.S. Energy Information Administration Oklahoma – Analysis
• Oklahoma Watch Have Oklahoma electric bills increased at a proportionally higher rate since 2020 than neighboring states?
• Oklahoma Watch Did Oklahoma recently pass a law that requires any new data center using 75 or more megawatts to pay their own infrastructure costs and give 60 days notice before buying land?

The post Does Oklahoma produce nearly three times more energy than it consumes? appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

In a unanimous ruling on one of two actions stemming from Hursh v. State Farm, a bad-faith case that has come to represent hundreds of virtually identical cases across the state, the Oklahoma Supreme Court denied Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s effort to intervene but invited an independent action that could result in criminal charges against the insurance giant.

In December, Oklahoma City District Court Judge Amy Palumbo was unequivocal in ruling that Drummond had the right to intervene.

“I understand what State Farm wanted me to get distracted by, but I do not find it to be on point or relevant,” Palumbo said at the time. “Having given it extensive thought, I believe the law does allow the AG to intervene.”

Nevertheless, the Court ruled that Palumbo exceeded her authority and that the AG’s intervention, calling on laws more typically associated with organized crime, changed the nature of the proceeding.

“The Attorney General’s pursuit of RICO allegations introduce quasi-criminal elements that would not only impermissibly broaden the scope of this civil contract dispute but also the nature of the recovery sought,” the decision reads.

The Court relied on a 1987 matter known as Gettler v. Cities Service Company, which established limits on interventions that expand the scope or character of litigation, the justices wrote.

Nevertheless, the Court offered precise instructions on how the AG could proceed so as to avoid the limitations imposed by the Gettler decision.

“The proper recourse could be for the Attorney General to bring his claims in a separate, independent lawsuit, which avoids the restraints of Gettler on intervention,” the decision reads.

In other words, if at first you don’t succeed, try again.

1000 Identical Cases

The Hursh matter harkened back to litigation that has been moving stealthily through Oklahoma courts for at least six years.

Hints of an alleged State Farm scheme to arbitrarily reduce payouts on claims of wind and hail damage to Oklahoma roofs emerged last year when reports surfaced of settlements in 125 individual bad faith cases against Oklahoma’s largest writer of homeowners insurance. After attorneys representing policyholders won the right to examine critical documents and depose executives, State Farm quickly moved to settle all 125 cases.

The amount of damage in each case was modest — around $30,000 — but just one of the 125 cases was revealed to have settled for $3 million. The total amount paid for all of the cases combined could only be estimated and the settlements once again hid the now infamous State Farm documents behind a protective order.

But hail damage cases kept coming.

The Hursh case, hinging on $22,000 in damage to a Broken Arrow home, burst into the news in December and quickly became emblematic of similar cases that now number as many as 1,000. Drummond filed to intervene in the Hursh case to expedite subpoenaing the same documents that triggered the settlement of the earlier cases.

Drummond raised the stakes in the Hursh matter by invoking RICO laws. State Farm took the intervention to the Supreme Court, which prompted Drummond to assert that if the Court denied the civil application of RICO laws, he would not shy away from criminal charges for State Farm employees if crimes were uncovered.

In the second action before the Supreme Court in the Hursh matter, the Court ruled in favor of policyholders seeking access to internal State Farm documents they believe will prove the company engaged in a scheme to defraud claimants.

“Massive Fraud Perpetrated on Oklahomans”

Within minutes of the announced decision, the office of the attorney general issued a three-sentence press release quoting Drummond.

“I thank the Oklahoma Supreme Court for bringing clarity to the appropriate forum where the case needs to be filed,” Drummond said. “We will be filing a new lawsuit in the morning to hold State Farm accountable for the massive fraud perpetrated on Oklahomans.”

In this, the AG appeared to act almost in concert with the Court, which had taken note of the AG’s insistence in his pleadings that he would not give up the fight if his effort at intervention was denied.

“Indeed, the Attorney General admits his intent to file such an action,” the justices wrote.

The Court’s equivocal decision is in keeping with a judicial practice variously known as signaling or roadmapping or preemptive dicta, in which a court may rule against a party while simultaneously suggesting how they might succeed in a further action.

A 2006 paper by Emory University School of Law Professor Tonja Jacobi modeled judges’ attempts to influence their agendas as a game of covert or overt signaling.

“Many judges attempt to shape their dockets by encouraging potential litigants to bring particular cases,” Jacobi wrote. “This encouragement takes the form of judges signaling their own positions on an issue as well as their colleagues’ expected support.”

The motive for such signaling may be judicial efficiency.

“Judges may wish to signal their attitudes on a particular issue to lower courts, beyond or before the bounds of precedent,” Jacobi wrote.

Jacobi confirmed that the Hursh decision bore all the earmarks of judicial signaling. The clarity of the course of action prescribed by the Court, and even the fact that the decision was unanimous, could be signs that the justices wanted to make a clear statement that ran counter to the denial of the intervention.

“This is not something that justices are required to do,” Jacobi said. “I think they are definitely signaling a way of making this case work in a different formulation.”

Jacobi said that subsequent scholarship had revealed the practice of judicial signaling to be effective and widespread.

“We are seeing this more and more as judges see bad behavior and they don’t want the party to get away with it on a technicality,” Jacobi said.

Andy Spriopolous, the Robert S. Kerr, Sr. Professor of Constitutional Law at Oklahoma City University School of Law, agreed that it was not uncommon for courts to advise litigants on the proper way to seek relief when dismissing claims.

“It is even more likely courts will provide this guidance when it is the representative of the people who seeks a remedy,” Spiropolous said in an email.

Ill-Gotten Gains

On Wednesday, Drummond filed a new action against State Farm in the District Court of Cleveland County.

“Multiple acts of racketeering activity and deceptive practices described herein — including misrepresentations at sale and renewal, claim denials communicated by email and electronic means, and use of computer systems to execute the scheme — occurred in Cleveland County,” the petition reads.

Although the new action is civil rather than criminal, the petition does not back away from the racketeering charge.

“From at least in or about 2020, up to and including the present, in the state of Oklahoma and elsewhere, State Farm … engaged in, directly and indirectly, the conduct of the affairs of that enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity,” the petition reads.

The petition alleges numerous ways in which State Farm unjustly enriched itself at policyholders’ expense, including the sale of policies and the denial of claims under false pretenses.

“Under principles of equity, State Farm should not be permitted to retain these ill-gotten gains,” the petition concluded.

State Farm did not respond to an interview request.

J.C. Hallman covers a variety of topics for Oklahoma Watch. Contact him at jchallman@oklahomawatch.org.

The post Oklahoma Supreme Court Signals the Way Forward on State Farm While Denying Drummond’s Intervention appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Keaton Ross and summer intern Maya Henry track a historic flood of outside political spending and targeted ad campaigns shaking up the June 16 primary elections. Plus, as states push forward with artificial intelligence laws despite federal warnings, reporter Andrea Eger reveals why nearly all AI legislation in the Oklahoma Legislature has hit a dead end. Catch these stories and more on the latest Long Story Short with Shaun Witt.

The post Long Story Short: Outside Political Money & Oklahoma’s Frozen AI Legislation appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

As Congress debates the transportation bill, Oklahoma’s future may depend on more than roads.

When MidAmerica Industrial Park Chief Administrative Officer David Stewart talks to prospective employers, transportation is often one of the first topics that comes up.

“If you have bad access, you’re completely out,” Stewart said.

Companies considering a move to Oklahoma want to know whether raw materials can arrive reliably, whether finished products can reach customers efficiently and whether workers can access jobs without difficulty.

In other words, they want to know whether the transportation system works.

For Stewart, that increasingly means more than highways.

It means rail service. It means access to inland ports. It means bridges, freight corridors, truck routes and the broader supply-chain network that connects Oklahoma manufacturers to national and international markets.

As Congress begins debating the BUILD America 250 Act, a sweeping five-year transportation reauthorization proposal that would take effect in October 2026, transportation leaders across Oklahoma are watching closely.

The bill would authorize funding for highways, bridges, freight corridors, transit systems, rail programs and safety initiatives through 2031. The previous transportation legislation, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, was passed in 2021 and will expire at the end of September.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves, R-Mo., called the BUILD America 250 Act, which would replace the prior law, the most important surface transportation bill since President Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System.

The proposal arrives at a pivotal moment for Oklahoma.

State leaders have spent years positioning Oklahoma as a logistics and freight hub. Industrial recruitment efforts increasingly emphasize the state’s location at the intersection of major transportation corridors. At the same time, transportation agencies face rising construction costs, aging infrastructure and uncertainty surrounding the long-term solvency of the Highway Trust Fund, the primary federal source of transportation funding.

The result is a transportation debate that extends far beyond roads alone.

“It’s all connected,” said Susan Howard, director of policy and government relations for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. “You cannot do any of this with just one mode.”

Howard said state transportation agencies are focused on three priorities as Congress considers the legislation: stability, flexibility and predictability.

“The number one concern is always having a long-term bill done on time,” Howard said.

State transportation agencies often plan projects years before construction begins, making certainty about federal funding critical for long-term decision making.

Howard said states are also seeking flexibility to address different regional needs.

“The needs of some of the states that you work with are going to be different than states here in the Northeast or in the West,” she said. “We really need as much flexibility as possible.”

At the same time, she said, transportation agencies are increasingly balancing the desire for expansion with the practical reality of maintaining aging infrastructure.

“Our primary role is maintaining the system we have and making sure that it is safe and efficient and reliable,” Howard said.

That focus on reliability has become increasingly important as inflation and rising construction costs have reduced how much infrastructure agencies can build with available funding.

“What I hear from our members is more than anything, it helps keep their head above water because of the cost of inflation and how much project costs have gone up,” Howard said of recent federal transportation funding.

Freight Becomes the Focus

One of the clearest themes emerging from the BUILD America 250 Act is a growing emphasis on freight movement.

The legislation expands freight programs, places additional emphasis on high-priority freight corridors, creates new freight planning initiatives and includes provisions intended to improve movement of agricultural products and other commodities.

Those priorities closely mirror conversations already taking place in Oklahoma.

Transportation officials, economic developers and logistics providers increasingly describe highways, railroads, ports and warehouses as components of a single system rather than separate industries.

That perspective is evident at Tulsa Ports, where barge traffic, trucking and rail operations intersect.

Executive Director David Yarbrough said inland waterways often receive less public attention than highways but play a critical role in the freight network.

“Barge transportation doesn’t replace trucking or rail,” Yarbrough said. “It complements them.”

The McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System links Oklahoma to the Mississippi River and global export markets. Agricultural commodities, industrial materials and manufactured goods move through the system.

Yarbrough said transportation planning increasingly focuses on how those systems work together.

A disruption affecting one mode often affects the entire network.

That observation was echoed by Sunderesh Heragu, Oklahoma State University professor of industrial engineering and management.

“Our biggest constraint is our ability to adapt to changes in the logistics environment caused by tariffs, wars, realignment of supply chains, weather-related events … and frequent changes in US government policies,” Heragu said.

Oklahoma’s Freight Ambitions

Those concerns are particularly relevant in Oklahoma, where economic development efforts increasingly emphasize logistics and distribution.

MidAmerica Industrial Park in Pryor has become one of the state’s most important industrial recruitment assets. Home to manufacturers, data centers and energy-related industries, the park depends heavily on transportation access.

Stewart said prospective employers routinely ask about freight movement, highway access and supply-chain reliability.

Projects such as the future Interstate 42 corridor have attracted attention because they could strengthen east-west freight connectivity across the region.

The proposed interstate designation would follow portions of U.S. Highway 412, connecting Oklahoma with Arkansas and other regional markets.

Supporters argue the corridor could improve freight mobility, strengthen economic development opportunities and improve connections among industrial centers, ports and distribution hubs.

Stewart views transportation investment as a long-term economic development strategy.

“It’s difficult to recruit industry if access is limited,” he said.

Preserving What Already Exists

While economic developers often focus on growth, transportation agencies face a more immediate challenge: preserving existing infrastructure.

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation’s planning documents emphasize maintenance and asset preservation as core priorities.

Emily Long, ODOT’s public information manager, said the department’s Eight-Year Construction Work Plan and Asset Preservation Plan continue to guide transportation priorities across the state. Together, the plans outline projects involving highways, bridges, rail, ports and transit systems.

Long said ODOT is encouraged that Congress has begun work on a new transportation bill but is not yet prepared to assess how specific provisions could affect Oklahoma because the legislation remains in the early stages of the process.

“We always have the eight-year plan,” Long said.

Like transportation agencies across the country, ODOT faces rising construction costs and an aging transportation system that requires continuous investment.

ODOT actually has two plans. One, the Construction Work Plan, outlines new work to be done over the next eight years. The other, called the Asset Preservation Plan, describes work needed to extend the life of existing infrastructure.

“Across the country, DOTs have experienced nearly 18 years of cost inflation over just the last three years,” ODOT Executive Director Tim Gatz wrote in the foreword to the plan. “That reality forces us to stretch limited dollars even further, making asset preservation an even more critical strategy to protect the progress Oklahomans have invested in.”

Oklahoma’s transportation priorities are evident in the projects already moving through ODOT’s pipeline. The agency’s current Eight-Year Construction Work Plan includes major investments in Interstate 35 widening, the Chickasha Bypass and the accelerated replacement of the Roosevelt Bridge over Lake Texoma. In eastern Oklahoma, plans also include replacement of the Navigation Bridge between Gore and Webbers Falls and major work on an Interstate 40 bridge crossing the Arkansas River in Muskogee County. Together, the projects reflect a mix of freight mobility, economic development and long-term system preservation.

Dr. Norb Delatte, a civil engineering professor at Oklahoma State University, said transportation facilities are long-lived assets.

Many bridges and roadways remain in service for 50 to 100 years.

Yet funding and political decisions often occur on much shorter timelines.

“Transportation funding is usually popular because it creates jobs,” Delatte said. “Unfortunately, it also suffers from a lack of long-term planning.”

Delatte argues infrastructure planning should be aligned with infrastructure lifespans.

The challenge becomes more complicated when inflation and construction costs rise faster than transportation revenues.

“The gas tax is a fixed amount per gallon,” he said. “It has not been adjusted for many years.”

Meanwhile, vehicles continue becoming more fuel-efficient.

The Highway Trust Fund Problem

That funding challenge sits at the center of the federal transportation debate.

For decades, the Highway Trust Fund has served as the primary funding source for federal highway programs.

The BUILD America 250 Act attempts to address some of those concerns.

The legislation includes provisions intended to generate new transportation revenue, such as fees on electric vehicles and other highway users.

Howard said AASHTO has identified more than 100 transportation funding mechanisms currently in use across the country. In addition to traditional fuel taxes and registration fees, some states have adopted sales taxes, rental car fees, freight-related charges and other dedicated transportation revenues.

“States are really looking at everything,” Howard said.

The diversification reflects a broader concern among transportation agencies that traditional fuel-tax revenues may no longer be sufficient to meet future infrastructure needs.

More Than Highways

Although surface transportation bills traditionally focus on roads and bridges, the current proposal extends well beyond highways.

The legislation includes substantial funding for bridge programs, transit systems, passenger rail, freight initiatives and safety programs.

The bridge provisions alone would represent more than $50 billion in investment over five years.

The proposal also includes dedicated funding for truck parking, an issue frequently raised by trucking companies.

Matt Herndon, president and CEO of United Petroleum Transports, identified truck parking as one of the industry’s most persistent challenges.

As freight volumes increase, drivers often struggle to find safe and legal places to park.

The BUILD America 250 Act would authorize $150 million annually for truck parking initiatives.

Herndon also pointed to broader questions regarding future transportation funding and the need to ensure all highway users contribute to infrastructure costs.

Oklahoma generally compares favorably with many states from a trucking perspective, Herndon said, particularly because severe congestion is less common than in larger metropolitan areas.

Still, he said, carriers continue to watch projects such as the future I-42 corridor and major interchange improvements around Oklahoma City. He also expressed support for efforts to accelerate project delivery, arguing that transportation improvements often spend years moving through planning and permitting processes before construction begins.

Transit Remains Part of the Equation

While much of the transportation debate centers on freight movement and infrastructure, transit advocates argue that moving people remains equally important to economic growth.

Kristen Joyner, executive director of the Oklahoma Transit Association, said public transportation often receives less attention than highways despite playing a critical role in connecting workers to jobs, patients to healthcare and residents to essential services.

In many rural communities, she said, public transit is not a convenience but a necessity.

For older adults, people with disabilities and residents without reliable access to a vehicle, transit systems can determine whether someone can reach a medical appointment, grocery store or workplace.

“Transportation is about access,” Joyner said.

She noted that economic development projects frequently focus on freight access, industrial recruitment and highway capacity, but employers also need workers who can reliably reach job sites.

That issue becomes increasingly important as communities confront workforce shortages and an aging population.

Joyner said transportation planning works best when highways, freight systems and transit networks are viewed as parts of a larger system rather than competing priorities.

“They all work together,” she said.

The BUILD America 250 Act includes funding for urban and rural transit programs, bus facilities and state-of-good-repair grants, continuing federal support for transit systems alongside highway and freight investments.

For transit providers, Joyner said predictable federal funding remains important because many systems operate with limited local resources and long equipment replacement cycles.

Like highway agencies, transit operators often plan years in advance.

“We need certainty,” she said.

Delatte said transportation decisions often outlast the political and budget cycles that produce them.

As Congress debates the next transportation bill, Oklahoma transportation leaders said the challenge is not simply building new infrastructure, but maintaining and connecting the systems already in place. The state’s future competitiveness, they argued, will depend on how effectively highways, railroads, ports, transit systems and freight corridors work together.

Stephen Martin is an Oklahoma City-based journalist and contributor to Oklahoma Watch. Contact him at smartin0170@gmail.com.

The post Freight, Bridges, Rail and Transit: How the BUILD America 250 Act Could Reshape Oklahoma appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Clara Goletto no longer picks up the phone when calls come from unknown numbers. The last time she did, she lost $2,500. 

On March 19, shortly after nine in the morning, Goletto received a call. Her daughter was arrested the night before, so she wasn’t surprised to hear the voice on the other end identify himself as Deputy Humphrey from the Oklahoma County jail. 

But she was surprised by the declaration that came next: her daughter, the voice on the line said, had COVID-19. Goletto owed the jail $2,500 for related fees. She was stressed, running on three hours of sleep and was watching her grandchildren, whom she’d assumed temporary care of while their mother was in jail. Goletto was suspicious, but the caller seemed legitimate: he knew her name, her daughter’s name and, even stranger, she later thought, her grandchildren’s names. And, he’d called her directly. 

She read aloud her debit card information; the jail only took debit, Deputy Humphrey warned her. Goletto would learn later that credit cards offer significantly stronger fraud protection than debit cards.

Then, there was another charge, for $900, an extended bill on her record that Goletto needed to clear for her daughter to be eligible for bail. She tried to negotiate and succeeded. When the voices on the line — at some point, she said, two other purported jail officials had joined the call — said she could pay off the last charge for $100, Goletto realized she was being scammed. 

“Well, that was it,” said Goletto, who’s retired and lives on a fixed income with her husband. “There’s all my money. They just got me, and I couldn’t do anything about it.” 

Bail bond scams are not new, but they’ve become faster and more accurate with the aid of technology and scammers’ unprecedented knowledge of victims’ personal information. Faux bondsmen lingering outside jails, hoping to trap overwhelmed families or the occasional odd call claiming unpaid charges or warrants, are no longer the biggest threat. Today, the calls come immediately after an arrest, accurately address family members by name, and, with artificial intelligence, callers can fake legitimate phone numbers and impersonate real people, such as law enforcement and even the jailed person themselves. 

Victims and bondsmen are begging authorities to do more to stop them. 

“This is something completely different because it’s lightning speed,” said Jessica Hawkins, president of the Oklahoma County Bondsman Association and a bondsman operating out of Oklahoma County, Cleveland County and Canadian County for 15 years. “This is different because it hasn’t been shut down.”

Across Oklahoma, stories like Goletto’s — scam calls made to emergency contacts and payments demanded through Cash App, PayPal and Apple Cash, virtual third-party payment options that offer little buyer protection — repeat themselves. 

Oklahoma County bondsman Heather Chambers recalled an 83-year-old woman who paid $7,777.68 to a man claiming to be Sergeant Briscoe with an Oklahoma County anger management course for inmates. The phone call lasted several hours and ended with the scammer threatening to kill the bondsman – Chambers – that the woman had contacted. 

Three other bondsmen told similar stories: 

A young man who got out of jail received a call saying that if he didn’t send money via PayPal to the self-described bondsman on the phone, he’d be re-detained immediately. He sent the money less than 24 hours after his release.

A woman was transferred from federal custody to the Canadian County jail. Within minutes of being booked, the woman’s cousin got a call demanding an electronic payment to bail her out. The scammer knew about the relocation before her family did.

A mother who sent $2,000 via Apple Cash after a man identifying himself as a lieutenant offered her son a place in a pre-trial release program. The mother contacted a lawyer first, who said the call seemed legitimate. Hours later, her son called her. He hadn’t been booked yet. 

Concerned bondsmen and victims have rallied law enforcement to conduct investigations and crack down on scammers. In April, a bondsman wrote a letter to the attorney general, detailing the story of a woman scammed. 

The attorney general’s office is investigating, according to an agency spokeswoman, and the Oklahoma Insurance Department issued a public warning in March, urging people to verify information with the jail or a licensed bond company and never send money to strangers. 

Scammers with accurate details are more believable, and bondsmen don’t always know how they’re obtaining certain information. 

Some information is public, such as that found on jail blotters that publish the full name, photo, booking number, charges and bond amount. Facebook accounts such as OKC Jailbirds, which has more than 125,000 followers, post notable arrests daily. 

But blotters aren’t live feeds, Hawkins said. Jail blotters are sometimes updated once a day. Some jails don’t update blotters over the weekend. 

“It’s the amount of time from the person being booked in to their family receiving phone calls that’s mind-blowing,” Hawkins said. 

And phone numbers and emergency contacts, which arrested people may provide during booking, are not posted on the blotters. Yet, scammers have been able to contact family members within minutes. 

Bondsmen noticed an uptick in similar scams in the last year. Over five months, Hawkins counted at least 15 of her clients who were scammed. 

Goletto eventually signed a legitimate bail bond contract with A Absolute Bonds. Owner Tracey Halley-Terrell encouraged Goletto to file a police report. But, Halley-Terrell acknowledged, she’s not sure a police report can help. Previous clients filed reports and have been dismissed. Halley-Terrell filed one herself when a scammer claimed to be calling from her business, but police said she was not a victim. 

Halley-Terrell, who is president of the Oklahoma Bondsman Association Board, started working as a bondsman in 1997. At the time, she rarely saw scams.

In the early 2010s, they popped up every now and then. 

“You might have heard about it every once in a while,” she said. “But nothing like it is right now.”

Some bondsmen have tried to puzzle out clues themselves. A group of state bondsmen track scam calls on a Facebook thread. They tried to find a pattern between the booking officers and clients’ scammed families, but couldn’t. 

Julie Trepagnier, a bondsman for nearly 30 years, is in that group of eagle-eyed bondsmen. Cracking down on scams is in the group’s best interest. 

“It hits your morale because I’m busting my butt every day to do this, and these people are coming in, stepping on my toes, and then they take people’s money,” Trepagnier said. “Then they don’t have the money to pay us.

“It breaks my heart for my clients,” Trepagnier said. “But it hurts my business too. Now I don’t have that income.”  

Some, including Trepagnier, have tried to track down the scammers themselves. The calls often originate from toll-free or private numbers, or numbers registered to small businesses across the country with seemingly no connection. 

One phone number automatically hangs up if called; another is linked to a Google Voice number, which makes tracking down the owner nearly impossible without a subpoena, since the numbers aren’t part of public telephone directories. 

Lewis Garrison, director of the bail bond division at the Oklahoma Insurance Department, said the inability to trace phone numbers has made law enforcement investigations harder. 

Frustrated with hitting dead ends, bondsmen in December took the issue of scam calls to sheriffs’ departments. Suspecting foul play or moles within jails, they requested an internal investigation and dedicated probes into each scam. 

Katie Tolbert, a bondsman in Oklahoma City, complained to the Oklahoma County Detention Center in December and the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office in April after a co-signer on one of her bond contracts was scammed out of thousands of dollars. Tolbert suspects it was an inside job and wanted someone held accountable.

“The timing of the contact, coupled with the personal and booking-specific information known to the callers, raised serious concerns regarding the misuse or unauthorized dissemination of inmate intake information,” she wrote to the attorney general. 

Tolbert hasn’t received a response.

“It’s very disappointing that no one seems to be taking these scammers seriously,” she said.

Some sheriffs’ offices have posted on Facebook to warn people of the scams, but bondsmen say that’s not enough.

David Stuckman, Professional Bail Agents of the United States president, said he’s pitched a public service campaign to the AARP in hopes the news would reach older audiences more effectively. 

Even so, Stuckman said, education may only go so far. He’s discussed the scams with the FBI and has been told that investigators are more focused on multimillion and billion-dollar fraud schemes than scams of a few thousand dollars. And the investigations are hard. 

“The sheriff and the police and the FBI and everybody, they can’t get ahead of it,” he said. 

Maya Henry is a summer 2026 intern at Oklahoma Watch. Contact her at mhenry@oklahomawatch.org.

The post Oklahoma Bail Bond Scammers Are Calling Families Within Minutes of an Arrest. Nobody Can Stop Them. appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Here is the audio of Oklahoma Watch’s published stories for the week of June 15, 2026.

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