College of the Muscogee Nation launches first tribal college police department in Oklahoma

College of the Muscogee Nation launches first tribal college police department in Oklahoma

Monday, January 12, 2026

Media Contact: Hicham Raache | Communications Coordinator | 918-293-4678 | [email protected]

The College of the Muscogee Nation launched its new police department last week, and the department's chief looks forward to working closely with the OSUIT Police Department.

Dr. Monte Randall, president of the college, and College of Muskogee Nation Police Department (CMNPD) Chief Levi Payne officially introduced the new police department during a Thursday ceremony on the campus, which is located near OSUIT.

CMNPD is the first tribal college in the state to establish its own campus police department. Payne said much work and dedication went into fulfilling the goal of establishing a police department on the College of the Muscogee Nation campus.

"We've been working on this for probably a couple of years, and it's something that's always been a vision and a discussion for the campus. Within the past two years, we started really focusing and working towards it," Payne said.

Payne said creating a campus police department was first discussed back in 2014.

"That really wasn't a priority at the time, but now the campus is growing and we're increasing facilities on campus. So, to better serve our students and our faculty and staff and increase campus safety, we wanted to revisit this," Payne said.

Payne has worked for the College of the Muscogee Nation since 2012. He was one of only two security officers patrolling the campus. The number of security personnel steadily grew to four within a few years and rose to eight by 2019, the same year that Payne was promoted to head of security.

The new police department will be a nine-person team, with Payne as chief, four police officers and four security officers. The team will protect a campus that has grown significantly in recent years and is continuing to grow.

The College of the Muscogee Nation opened its new Lecture Hall/STEM Building in May 2024. That same month also saw the groundbreaking of the Advanced Construction and Manufacturing Engineering (ACME) building. Also, ground was broken to build Mvskoke Memorial Hall on May 15, 2025. The Memorial Hall will house numerous Muscogee Nation tribal artifacts and historical pieces. There are also plans to add more dorms, according to Payne.

Both OSUITPD and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Lighthorse Tribal Police Department supported the College of the Muscogee Nation with its security needs as well as its efforts to create its own police department, according to Wooliver.

"Chief [Matt] Wooliver and his staff have always been supportive. We've leaned on them for different areas going through this [process]. They've provided services for us and helped us along the way," Payne said.

CMNPD and OSUITPD will continue supporting one another, and a Memorandum of Understanding between the two departments could be developed in the future, Payne said.

"They've always been willing to come over and help us with anything, and that partnership will definitely continue," he said.

Payne looks forward to his department growing and flourishing and hopes that the CMNPD will someday help train officers for other tribal colleges that seek to establish a police department of their own.

"That's down the road, but that is a vision that we would like to see - our campus being able to provide training for other departments and outside agencies," he said.