Mel Webb retires; Law enforcement career spans 48 years

After a 48-year career in law enforcement, Mel Webb, a retired state trooper and former Shawnee police chief, has officially retired and now plans to spend more time with his family.
His half-century career has spanned all levels of law enforcement, from street patrol to administration.
“I’ve enjoyed it all — it’s been a heck of a ride,” the Shawnee resident said. “Five decades have been an education — I wouldn’t trade any of it.”
Webb, 71, recently retired from the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission, where he worked the past 20 years as director of law enforcement. His primary duty was to enforce the rules of horse racing. In recent years, that job evolved into regulating casino gaming at race tracks. Before that, he worked as a law enforcement agent at Remington Park.
Webb’s career began in 1961 at the Tulsa Police Department before he spent 21 years with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. Much of his time was spent on patrol in several areas of the state, including assignments in Canadian, Seminole, McIntosh and Tulsa counties, as well as a stint as a supervisor in Pottawatomie County. 
He said his most memorable assignment as a state trooper was the McAlester prison riot in 1973. He and the riot squad were inside the facility several days during that debacle, which is still considered one of the state’s most destructive riots, Webb said.
Some of his days spent on patrol meant he had contact with people every day and no two days were the same.
“To me, being a road trooper was the best job,” he said. And through all the years, Webb said he was lucky. While he had to draw his weapon many times on the job, he never had to fire it.
While with the OHP, he also spent four years in Ardmore, serving as Troop F Commander before moving back to Shawnee and being promoted to captain. At the time of his retirement from the patrol in 1983, he was the assistant to the chief of patrol, he said.
Throughout his career, he’s also taught criminal justice courses at Seminole State College, Oklahoma Baptist University and the University of Central Oklahoma. Many of his students he would see again as officers while working as Shawnee’s police chief.
After retiring from the OHP in 1983, Webb was immediately appointed to serve as Shawnee’s chief of police, serving from 1983 to 1987.
Webb said he found the transition from being a state trooper to a chief an easy one, mainly because he already knew many of the officers. In fact, many of them had been in his law enforcement classes. One of his recruits from an OBU class was Russell Frantz, who is now Shawnee’s current police chief.
Webb’s road to choosing a law enforcement career came to his mind while serving in the Marine Corps, but it was a trooper in his hometown of Sapulpa that inspired his lifelong career.
That trooper, Jack McKanzie, “commanded a lot of respect,” Webb said, and was “always a role model I respected.”
Webb, who called him “Mr. Highway Patrolman,” said several other trooper recruits from the Sapulpa area chose an OHP career because of McKanzie.
Webb said McKanzie told him many years ago that no two shifts are ever the same. He also told him: “You never know what’s in the car you’re getting ready to stop;  You never know who is in the car; and you never know what’s around the corner.”
Working in law enforcement has brought him a sense of pride and Webb said he always lives by the Golden Rule: “Treat people like you want to be treated.” 
Webb said he’s enjoyed his career and credits his supportive family for his success. He and his wife of 47 years, Joan, have lived northwest of Shawnee for the past 30 years. They have two children, Mel Jr. and Allison, and the couple has four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Webb and his wife raise paint horses, so while he’s retired from a career and doesn’t have to make a daily commute, there’s still plenty of work to do tending to those horses.
Webb said he plans to spend time with his great-grandchildren, including taking them to school and will take time to “slow down and smell the roses.”
———
Kim Morava may be reached at 214-3962.