Police officers are constantly in the news these days, for a variety of reasons. 

A three-year veteran of the Oklahoma City police department - who also played high school and college footbal - has been arrested and is now in jail after several women accused him of rape, forcible oral sodomy, sexual battery, and indecent exposure - offenses that the officer allegedly did while he was on the job. 

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The Oklahoman reports that from February to June of this year, the officer, identified as Daniel Holtzclaw, 27, a three-year veteran of the force, allegedly harassed seven African-American women during traffic stops and other circumstances, and forced them to have sex with him. 

The investigation on Holtzclaw started on June 18 when one of the victims complained to police. The next day, the officer was placed on administrative leave. 

Oklahoma City PD has received statements from six victims and another one has indicated her willingness to submit a statement. 

City police Chief Bill Citty and Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater announced Thursday that Holtzclaw is being held on a US$5 million bail. They expect to file up to nine cases against the officer on August 29.

Citty and Prater said there could be other victims, and are encouraging them to come forward.

 "We started the investigation and we started looking at traffic stops he had made throughout the previous months to try to identify and initiate contact with females that we knew he had stopped during that period of time, just to see if they had been sexually assaulted," Citty said.

Hotzclaw, an Enid native, played high school football star and was senior middle linebacker at Eastern Michigan University before he joined Oklahoma PD after college.

Investigation showed that Holtzclaw has been stopping women, either during traffic stops or as they walked through neighborhoods, and threatening them with arrest. In the process, Holtzclaw would force the women to expose themselves, fondled the women, and in one instance, had forcible intercourse with a woman.

Holtzclaw, an Enid native, worked the 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift at the Springlake Division, which predominately patrols the northeast part of Oklahoma City. Police said most incidents happened at the location of the stops, but some victims were taken to remote locations.

Citty said the case angered and disturbed him, and he praised his detectives for their work in identifying additional victims.  The chief said all the victims are black women between the ages of 34 and 58, and the incidents occurred from February to June in the area of Lincoln Boulevard to Interstate 35 and NE 14 to NE 50.

Oklahoma PD decided to release Holtzclaw's picture to encourage other possible victims to come forward and file a statement.

If there is anyone that was victimized by this officer, we certainly want to hear from them," Chief Citty said.

TagsOklahoma, Daniel Holtzclaw