Steve Metzer

Tulsa World Capitol Bureau Staff Writer

OKLAHOMA CITY — Attorney General Gentner Drummond said Wednesday that the Oklahoma Highway Patrol is bound by law to patrol interstate highways in metro areas of Tulsa and Oklahoma counties.

The AG’s opinion should effectively roadblock a plan announced by Oklahoma Commissioner of Public Safety Tim Tipton on July 3 to end routine patrols of OHP troopers in the state’s two major metro areas beginning Nov. 1.

"The opinion does not remove discretion (for DPS) ... to deploy its forces as it needs to," Drummond said during a Wednesday press conference. "What this does is draw a bright line that you cannot abandon the interstates and highways of the municipalities of Oklahoma City and Tulsa. If we play games and have one trooper (end up as

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