Police officers turn in their badges in ‘symbolic’ protest
By Paris Flannigan
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Louisiana (KATC) — At least five police officers turned in their badges at the Basile Town Council meeting Monday night.
The council’s meeting is streamed live on the town’s Facebook page, and at the end of the video officers can be seen walking up to the council table and placing their badges on the table.
The move sparked confusion among those in attendance.
“I didn’t understand it at first,” said District 1 Councilwoman Jessica Ceaser. “I was like, ‘What are they doing? Are they quitting?’ Everybody was confused.”
The officers’ action came after discussion surrounding a policy requiring police units to remain at the station when officers are off duty, ending the department’s longstanding practice of allowing officers to take patrol vehicles home.
Chief Nick Richardson said the action was symbolic; his officers were trying to make a statement. None of them have left, and they’re working, he said.
Richardson said the dust-up is about a policy that’s been in place for some time that allows officers to drive their units home from work when they’re off-duty. He said it was in place last year under former Assistant Chief AJ Frank and was in place when he took over in February. No issues were raised since then, he said. Richardson said he has three POST-certified officers – one that makes $14 an hour, another making $15.50, and the third makes $16 an hour. Taking the units home “is considered a perk – them taking their units home makes up for the low pay,” he said.
But then a couple weeks ago there was a question put before voters, which would have converted the chief position from elected to appointed. Voters rejected that, 79 percent to 21 percent. Richardson says he believes that is why the issue was raised at Monday night’s meeting.
“They didn’t have a problem until they lost the election,” he said.
However, the Mayor, Mark Denette said such claims are ridiculous.
He says the issue is not as simple as fuel costs alone. He says town leaders must also review insurance requirements and liability concerns before making a final decision.
“We need to check with our insurance carrier to see what they require,” Denette said. “This was never really approved by the council prior to the new chief taking over.”
Despite the public display, Richardson emphasized that every officer remains on the job and committed to serving the community.
“I just want to let the people know, the community, that you’re never abandoned,” Richardson said. “We will always be there to answer the call.”
The officers were “trying to make a statement, but they’re all working because they care about this community. We’re a family over here,” Richardson said.
Officer Austin Young, one of the officers who participated in the badge protest, said the vehicles help officers remain available when additional manpower is needed.
“It was a perk because I’m full-time,” Young said. “I could respond if they ever needed help at nights or just in general if they needed me to come in so we can do some extra patrol. I was able to do that instead of bringing my personal car. It was just an extra perk.”
Alderman Kenny Burgess spoke to us and give a deeper insight as to what took place.
Burgess says the take-home policy raises several issues, including insurance coverage, maintenance costs, wear-and-tear on vehicles and fuel costs. The council has to know what the policy costs, and ensure that neither the town, nor the officer nor the chief are exposed to liability without insurance coverage, Burgess said. He said the council had asked the former chief about that, but never got information on it.
Basile is a Lawrason Act community, meaning there’s an elected mayor, council and police chief. The council approves the budget, meaning they’re responsible for making sure taxpayer money is spent correctly, Burgess explained. He said the chief didn’t bring his policy to the council with the fiscal impact, and that’s why the council voted to pause the vehicle policy.
“I don’t think he realized this policy he wrote is illegal,” Burgess said. “We’ve put a temporary pause on it until we can figure it out.”
Burgess said he believes there will be a special meeting soon to discuss all these issues.
He said he believes the officers have resigned, but he also said he feels like they’re trying to intimidate the council.
“To me, they resigned. They abandoned their posts, and they put our community and our citizens in harm’s way because we’re trying to correct a problem that their chief could have prevented if he had brought to the council,” Burgess said. “I took it as an intimidation tactic. If we back down, then the next time there’s something they want and the council says we can’t afford it, guess what? Now instead of three agencies, you’ve got one dictating what the rest of them do.”
Burgess said there are lots of rumors and discussions happening in Basile about this.
“It breaks my heart to see this going on in our small town. We’re not dealing with kids we’re dealing with grown adults who are professionals. I’m 100 percent all actions have consequences. Their actions last night, our town and the citizens in our town are the ones who are going to suffer from the consequences, because we no longer have an active Police Department. They put all of us in danger.”
That actually is one thing that Burgess and the chief agree on: that the town is in danger.
“I have four officers, one per shift, which is a safety hazard, and I have a reserve every other weekend,” Richardson said. “There’s myself, the deputy chief and the secretary – and that is it. I’ve presented two budgets to the council to see if I can get an increase, but after last night I guess I won’t. This puts the town in jeopardy. This isn’t what our citizens deserve.”
Richardson also echoes what Burgess said about Basile.
“I’m more hurt than angry, because this is my community,” he said. “But the fight’s not over with, we will prevail.”
A special meeting is scheduled June 11th with the council, mayor and police chief regarding the police officers who turned in their badges.
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