Council Members Critical Of Police Force Shutdown

Edgewood City Council member Ruby Smith said she had no idea what her husband was talking about when she returned home last Thursday afternoon.

"He told me the phone had been ringing off the hook all morning with people wanting to know what was going on with the police department," Smith said.

The problem was, she said, she had no idea, either.

In Monday’s Edgewood City Council meeting, Smith and council member Louis Dunn criticized the manner in which the Edgewood Police Department was shut down for the four days leading up to the meeting.

After consulting with the city’s attorney, David Mallard, Edgewood Mayor Charles Prater said he made the decision to temporarily suspend operations of the police department due to "economic reasons" until the council meeting.

Edgewood Police Chief Henry Askew said he and his officers were escorted off police department premises and watched while they turned in city-owned equipment and took personal belongings from their offices.

In his comments near the end of the three-hour session, Dunn was particularly strong in voicing his displeasure with the situation.

"If it comes down to it, we may have to raise taxes," he said about continued funding of the police department. "But I don’t like the way this was done. It galls me.

"It was an embarrassment to me, to the council and to the city," Dunn added. "It didn’t have to be done this way."

Smith said she went to Edgewood City Hall to find out what had taken place and spoke with Mayor Pro-Tem James McEnturff.

However, Smith said after Monday’s meeting that she was "very concerned" about the decision to keep the entire police department on paid leave.

"This was one of the biggest things that has come up. The whole council should have been notified ahead, but as far as I know only the mayor and mayor pro-tem knew about what was going to take place," she said.

Smith went on to say, "I felt like if there was the need to do something like that, there should have at least been called a meeting. We should have called an emergency meeting."

On the day of his decision, Prater said he did not want a repeat of an incident 10 years ago in which the entire department resigned after learning of possible budget or position cuts that year.

"It is always a volatile situation anytime you have to discuss layoffs and possible dissolution of a department," Prater said.

While Prater was meeting with Askew after the council meeting, Mallard said the decision was one of "planning for the worst and hoping for the best."

"His goal was to protect the interests of the police department, city and citizens until the council had an opportunity to look at this," Mallard said.

"We knew it would cause a stir," he added.

It stirred the emotions of about 60 Edgewood citizens who turned up at 9 a.m. Monday for the council meeting.

"I thought the turnout was great," Dunn said after the meeting. "In the past 14 years I’ve lived in Edgewood, I think this was the biggest public support of any one issue."

No action was taken by the council on the police department’s future operations with a new budget year beginning Oct. 1.

All five of the department’s full-time employees returned to work Monday after a closed meeting with Askew.

Near the end of the council meeting, Dunn, Smith and Blake Tyndell said they favored keeping the department with some budgetary restructuring. McEnturff said he favored the department’s dissolution, citing past public comments to him that water and streets needed more attention.

Council member Stephen Goode was not present for the meeting.