Greenwood Mayor Carolyn McAdams said the search for a new police chief will have to wait until she completes a review of the city’s personnel policy barring employment of city police officers by other law-enforcement agencies.
“I don’t want to do anything hastily. I’ve had to go to Jackson a couple of times this week. I do want to give it 100 percent of my attention,” the mayor said today.
She said City Attorney Don Brock, who is helping to review the personnel policy, is out of town this week.
The city’s existing policy, which bars officers from being employed by other jurisdictions that have police powers, came to the forefront with the mayor’s derailed nomination of Rob Banks for the police chief’s job.
Banks, 35, is currently a Carroll County constable and a criminal and narcotics investigator with the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department.
Banks said, if he got the job as Greenwood’s chief, he would resign from the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department but would continue to serve as constable, an elected position, until his term of office expires in 2015.
Initially, both McAdams and Brock maintained that constables do not have police powers and thus Banks could hold both jobs. That claim, however, was refuted, under questioning, by Banks himself during a Jan. 7 meeting of the City Council. Banks said that constables do have the power to write tickets and make arrests.
That led the council to postpone indefinitely a vote on his nomination.
McAdams said today that while Banks’ name was “still on the table” as a contender for police chief, she hasn’t talked to him about it.
Banks was one of five finalists being considered by McAdams for the $58,000-per-year post. All are not residents of Greenwood. The names of the other four finalists have not been released.
“Whether I go to No. 2, I don’t know. First and foremost is the policy,” McAdams said.
The mayor said she was inclined to relax the prohibition on police officers working in other law-enforcement jobs.
The mayor said officers, in their free time, should be allowed to be employed where they are needed. City employees won’t “be rich” on their salaries alone, she said.
According to Acting Police Chief Johnny Langdon, the policy was adopted because of potential liability concerns for the city from an officer’s employment elsewhere.
However, McAdams said, the city’s insurance carrier has told her that there is no difference, from a liability standpoint, for an officer moonlighting in law enforcement or an unrelated field.
“What we are being told is, if police have a job at any outside agency, it is still a part-time job whether it’s law enforcement or at McDonald’s,” McAdams said.
Whatever McAdams ends up recommending, she said it won’t be only because of Banks’ situation.
“We would not change the policy to help one individual out,” she said.
- Contact Bob Darden at 581-7239 or bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
