OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A state senator voiced concern Monday about the Oklahoma Insurance Department's recent purchase of police vehicles, shotguns and other law enforcement equipment, and said he plans to introduce a bill to stop what he described as the agency's "police-like posture."
Sen. Harry Coates, R-Seminole, said he believes Insurance Commissioner John Doak's office is engaging in "government overreach" and that the department shouldn't give the public the impression that the agency's anti-fraud investigators are a police force.
"Why would we want the insurance examiners and auditors to roll up to somebody's building in a police-outfitted unit, unless it was to intimidate them?" Coates said. "If he wants his guys to wear a bulletproof vest, I don't have a problem with that, but stay out of police vehicles. Don't roll up there with your shotgun standing up in the rack with your light bar and all that."
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