Oklahoma hits right note for police chief
After fleeing Katrina, musician and lawman resettles in Luther
After fleeing Katrina, musician and lawman resettles in Luther.
HLUTHER urricane Katrina destroyed his house, disrupted his law enforcement and musical careers and uprooted his family. But 13 years later, Luther Police Chief David Randall can say his move from New Orleans to Oklahoma was a good thing.
He’s back to streetlevel law enforcement, his wife and children are content, and his jazz band, On a Whim, has a loyal local following.
“My wife says it’s peaceful here, and the schools are a lot better,” he said.
His wife, Janel, said she knew it was time for a change.
“I love New Orleans,” she said. “There’s nothing like it. But I mentally prepared myself to not go back.”
As she and the children were fleeing the storm, she said, “I looked at my house and said ‘goodbye house.’ ”
Janel caravanned with relatives to seek
refuge with other relatives, first to Houston, then Dallas, and finally to Edmond, leaving her husband to work the disaster in his post as a sheriff’s deputy in Harvey, across the river from New Orleans. Those were 18-hour days.
He would not leave the New Orleans area for good until 2008.
“I didn’t want to come until I felt New Orleans was kind of back on its feet,” he said.
It was not easy to find work in Oklahoma.
“The New Orleans Police Department didn’t have a great reputation,” he said.
He worked for the U.S. Marshals Service, then as a federal police officer at Tinker Air Force Base, where he stayed for seven years before becoming Luther’s police chief 11 months ago.
Janel Randall, a real estate broker, came to Oklahoma with son David Jr., now 24, and daughter Mia, now 16. Son Victor, 10, was born after the move.
The toughest adjustment was for David Jr., who was in sixth grade when they left New Orleans. At first, the family coped with homesickness by visiting New Orleans every six months. Now they go back about once a year.
“I miss the food in New Orleans,” Janel Randall admitted. “But I do know how to cook so it’s not that bad.”
Feeling the music
David Randall, 47, said he discovered early on that Luther is a tight-knit community.
“Man, when they take you in, they take you in,” he said. “Everything has its hiccups, but for the most part they have really accepted me. And they know they can just walk into the police station and talk to me.”
Randall said he is currently on a mission to get better equipment for his department of 10. He has met with some larger departments in the metro area to find out if he can inherit some of the equipment they take out of service.
“I’m not too proud to beg,” he said with a laugh.
Shenita Jones, a therapist, was among the fans gathered recently to hear On a Whim perform at Water’s Edge Winery in downtown Oklahoma City.
“On a Whim is a band that is vibrant, and allows you to transcend, to feel the music,” Jones said.
Music, David Randall said, “is ingrained in the fabric of my DNA. New Orleans is just such a musical place. I was such a shy kid, but I could sing you a song.”
Randall plays lead guitar in the band, which he helped found five years ago, but has mastered several other instruments including bass, viola, percussion and harmonica.
His father once played piano for Fats Domino, but when his mother was expecting her third child, he decided to stop touring and get a 9 to 5 job “so he could see his kids grow up,” Randall said.