Office of Chief of Police

The Chief of Police serves as the chief administrator of the Odessa Police Department, is responsible for policy development, control, supervision, and program implementation of this Department and is accountable for the effective delivery of police services to the community. The Chief’s Office is the command center of the Department and administrates the Department’s annual budget.

Directly under supervision of the Chief is the:

  • Administrative Deputy Chief
  • Director of Public Safety Communications
  • Legal Advisor
  • Operations Deputy Chief
  • Personnel Specialist
  • Police Chaplain
  • Research and Grants Specialist
  • Senior Administrative Assistant

Message from Chief Mike Gerke

Welcome to the website for the Odessa Police Department.

Odessa is a unique community, situated in West Texas approximately 4-hours from major metropolitan areas. Odessa has grown into an Oasis in the desert and is home to a thriving economic hub of Oil and Gas activity. The Odessa Police Department was founded in 1936 with just one Police Officer serving a population of 2,407. Today, we are an agency with over 240 members, and we serve a rapidly growing population of 130,000. Annually OPD responds to an estimated 270,000 calls for service.

You will find throughout our various web, mobile, and social media platforms, OPD strives to be an engaged agency heavily involved with the community we serve. Each one of our employees takes pride in what they do, they act with integrity and honesty in every facet of our daily functions and maintain steadfast loyalty to our agency’s mission of ensuring a peaceful and productive community. We strive constantly to be highly trained, progressive, and lead the way in law enforcement best practices. Our goal is to ensure those that live, work, and visit Odessa, do so safely and enjoyably.

Please explore all that our agency has to offer, we are proud to host an advanced Law Enforcement Academy doing amazing things with regards to training and fostering the growth of our officers and staff. A Real-Time Intelligence Center serving the Permian basin region and offering advanced technology to bring timely resolutions to crimes committed in our community and region. These are just a few examples of the amazing things our agency is proud of, with countless more to share.

At any time, please do not hesitate to contact any of our staff members for assistance.


Michael Gerke, Chief of Police
Odessa Police Department