Oklahoma City police have withheld incident reports on people who were never arrested since a 2023 policy change, and now face a records lawsuit from Oklahoma Watch

A November 28, 2023 revision to the Oklahoma City Police Department's policy manual added language asserting that incident reports are not public records under the Oklahoma Open Records Act, and the department has since refused to release reports on people who were detained or investigated but not arrested or charged, reporting only via a third-party crime-map product. Oklahoma Watch reported the policy in October 2025 after the state's Public Access Counselor sided with police; Chief Ron Bacy declined to answer questions, and a department spokeswoman said 'the policy has been in place for years, so there isn't anything new to discuss.' Oklahoma Watch subsequently sued the department for release of a specific incident report.