The mayor of a small Alabama city said the city couldn’t legally fire police officers after the city’s three-member police department was engulfed in a scandal over racist texts. So the city is instead disbanding the department and laying off its officers.
The city council for the city of Vincent unanimously voted to disband its three-member police department during a public meeting Thursday after authorities say one of the members of the department sent a text with a racist joke about slavery. The texts, which Mayor James Latimore said were sent in June, sparked outrage after being posted online in July.
Earlier in August, the city council voted to suspend the police chief and assistant police chief. The police department’s third member resigned just hours before the city council vote.
That meeting set in motion the process of disbanding the department, but the details of how to terminate remaining officers remained unresolved.
The plan to fire them hit a legal snag, even as some officers announced their plans to retire.
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The problem with firing the officers was uncovered by the city’s attorney, Latimore said at Thursday’s meeting. The city’s personnel policy requires two written complaints and a verbal warning to be filed before an employee can be terminated.
Latimore said there have been no official complaints against any police department employee during the time he has been mayor.
Voting to eliminate the department solved the issue, the city’s mayor said: “It’s not firing them,” Latimore said. “It’s laying them off.”
Disbanding the department also allows the city to craft a better policy to deal with future disciplinary issues, should the department come back one day.
“This has uncovered a flaw that not a single person at this table realized we have with our personnel policy,” Latimore added as residents attending the public meeting expressed outrage that the officers involved could not be fired.
Now the city plans to contract the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office for law enforcement coverage. The police chief and assistant police chief will be laid off five days after the new ordinance is passed, Latimore said, adding that both officers had recently submitted their paperwork for retirement.
During the Thursday public meeting, Vincent residents expressed their hurt and outrage over the texts and demanded further investigation into the incident and accountability for the officers involved. Residents also voiced concerns about how far Shelby County Sheriff’s Office is from the town and questioned how quickly the agency may be able to respond to emergencies.
Latimore said dissolving the police department is not intended to be a permanent solution. He said entering a contract with the sheriff’s office will help give the city time to hire new officers, rebuild the police department and revise its personnel policies.
“We can bring the police department back,” he said. “We can go with Shelby County for a year and then bring the police department back once we’ve had time to interview people to find the right people to build positions.”
“It’s not the end of Vincent Police Department.”
Contact News Now Reporter Christine Fernando at cfernando@usatoday.com or follow her on Twitter at @christinetfern.