Ohio Village Considers Disbanding Police Force

July 28, 2014
The part-time police department in Commercial Point handled almost 1,000 calls last year.

COMMERCIAL POINT, Ohio — On his shift on Thursday morning, the most excitement Officer Kevin Kelly had was surveilling a dog wandering the streets. But before he got his cruiser turned around to corral it, the Labrador retriever had settled into what appeared to be his regular comfy spot in a nearby yard.

“Well, looks like I let another one get away,” Kelly joked.

He laughs about it, but it isn’t as if that’s all police officers do here in this Pickaway County village of about 1,600. The part-time department handled almost 1,000 calls last year. But after months of turmoil, a suspension, a firing and a decision to stop using any reserve officers, the department consists of only Kelly and Chief Adam Jordan, who each work 30 hours a week.

It soon could be gone entirely.

Mayor Joe Hammond has recommended that the force disband and that the village sign a contract with the Pickaway County sheriff’s office for protection and patrol.

A special village council meeting is set for 7 p.m. Monday to discuss the proposal, and a vote is expected at the council’s regular meeting on Aug. 4.

Hammond said that Jordan, chief since 2008, is a terrific police officer but hasn’t been a very good leader. He says that officer discipline, record-keeping and scheduling have been lax.

To that, Jordan said: “I feel I’ve never been given the support I need to be chief. I have to be an officer, too. I need more help.”

Village Councilman David Sadler told the mayor at a meeting on Monday that it seems as if the personnel issues got out of hand, and, “rather than deal with it, you went to the sheriff and threw together a contract and an ordinance to disband the police department.”

After the meeting, Hammond bristled at the accusation that he’s unwilling to pull the department back together: “It isn’t fixable,” he said.

The police budget this year is $173,330. In addition to Kelly and the chief, a sergeant would also work 30 hours a week, and another officer would work 16. Those two positions are unfilled because of recent trouble.

Sheriff Robert Radcliff has said he would dedicate a deputy to the village 90 hours a week at an annual cost of either $115,500 or $130,000, depending on which entity pays for fuel and cruiser maintenance.

In addition, the police department offices at Village Hall would be converted to a substation so that the other deputies who work in northern Pickaway County also could use them.

The fate of the department is one faced by other villages. Ohio law requires villages to provide police protection, but officials are allowed to pay sheriffs to do it for them, and many do. In recent years, the villages of Jacksonville, Mount Sterling, New Holland and New Rome are among those in Ohio that have dissolved their departments.

Kent Scarrett, a spokesman with the Ohio Municipal League, said emotion generally surrounds the debate.

“A police force is really at the heart of what a citizenry looks to for its identity,” he said. “ It’s kind of the holy grail.”

Westerville Police Chief Joe Morbitzer is president of the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police. He said it sometimes doesn’t make sense for a small department to stay together. It can be difficult to maintain training and meet standards when operating on a shoestring budget, and officers can be overworked.

Still, the association offers help to communities struggling with the issue. A committee will review the department’s policies, look at finances and help to mediate problems or disputes to see whether the department can operate more effectively — or whether it shouldn’t be operating at all. No one from Commercial Point has asked for such help.

“What it really boils down to is: What do people who live in the town actually want?” Morbitzer said. “Sometimes, the locals don’t just want their own police force, they demand it.”

Commercial Point resident and former longtime councilman Jim Kuzelka is in the demanding camp. Census figures show Commercial Point has more than doubled in population in the past decade. Kuzelka said it’s only going to get bigger. And a contract with the sheriff’s office takes away any control the village has over who it hires, when the officers work or how the department is run.

“The people in this village deserve a police department of our own, one that will protect our kids, our homes and our businesses,” he said. The sheriff has been putting deputies in the village regularly, at Hammond’s request and at a cost of about $12,000, since June because there weren’t enough officers.

In April, the council essentially fired Sgt. John Murphy, who had been with the department since 2006. He and the mayor have different versions of what led to the dismissal. Murphy filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claiming he was retaliated against because he had accused Hammond of making racial slurs.

A reserve officer was suspended two weeks ago for altering a report about a controversial traffic stop that is a centerpiece of another fight between the department and Hammond. That officer said that two councilmen and the mayor interfered with his duties during an arrest because they knew the man being questioned.

“I didn’t create this problem; I inherited it,” said Hammond, mayor since January 2012. “The sheriff’s department is very cost-effective and professional. And they are what we should use.”

Copyright 2014 The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio)

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

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