06-17-2019, 11:26 AM
Ridgetop dissolves its police department at special meeting
The city of Ridgetop, Tennessee, has disbanded its police force after a special-called meeting Monday night.
"It was all budget," said Ridgetop Mayor Tony Reasoner. "We can't afford it. Hopefully, and I'm going to float this idea with the board, but I think we need a 4-5 member board of citizens to come up with ideas on our future. Do we need a full-time or a part-time police department, or do we let the sheriff ... cover it?"
The Ridgetop police department had a budget of $429,000, said Reasoner, who also serves as the cityâ€s fire chief. Heâ€s been with the city since 1989.
The police budget included revenues of $258,000, mostly from ticket writing, but Reasoner said that figure had been steady since 2006, when it jumped up from $120,000.
"The department wrote six tickets in May, but the chief (Bryan Morris) kept saying he could keep a fully-staffed force for $289,000," Reasoner said. "We told him we had $129,000 in the budget because we couldn't count revenues from tickets.
"We never heard anything else."
Controversy over recorded conversation
The police department has been at the center of debate in Ridgetop for months.
Trouble began earlier this year after Morris released audio of a conversation that took place between himself and city leaders during a city meeting. The chief had asked for a new officer for his department.
"They told me: you will write 210 tickets or we will take the position away," Morris said.
Reasoner said it didn't happen that way.
He also said he and the council were unaware that they were being recorded at the time.
“I didnâ€t agree with the secret taping,†Reasoner said in an earlier interview with the USA TODAY Network - Tennessee. “But I remember in the workshop, he wanted to hire another officer, and he was told that the pay for the officer would equal the revenues from about 210 tickets. We never said he had to write those tickets.â€
Ridgetopâ€s police department covered 1.4 square miles and just over 2,000 residents.
It was a 24-hour department, with patrols scheduled around the clock, Reasoner said.
On average, officers wrote about three tickets apiece during shifts, he noted.
Five police officers were employed by the city before the disbanding of the department Monday. Reasoner said they would all be paid with insurance through the end of June.
more:
https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/lo...418293001/
The city of Ridgetop, Tennessee, has disbanded its police force after a special-called meeting Monday night.
"It was all budget," said Ridgetop Mayor Tony Reasoner. "We can't afford it. Hopefully, and I'm going to float this idea with the board, but I think we need a 4-5 member board of citizens to come up with ideas on our future. Do we need a full-time or a part-time police department, or do we let the sheriff ... cover it?"
The Ridgetop police department had a budget of $429,000, said Reasoner, who also serves as the cityâ€s fire chief. Heâ€s been with the city since 1989.
The police budget included revenues of $258,000, mostly from ticket writing, but Reasoner said that figure had been steady since 2006, when it jumped up from $120,000.
"The department wrote six tickets in May, but the chief (Bryan Morris) kept saying he could keep a fully-staffed force for $289,000," Reasoner said. "We told him we had $129,000 in the budget because we couldn't count revenues from tickets.
"We never heard anything else."
Controversy over recorded conversation
The police department has been at the center of debate in Ridgetop for months.
Trouble began earlier this year after Morris released audio of a conversation that took place between himself and city leaders during a city meeting. The chief had asked for a new officer for his department.
"They told me: you will write 210 tickets or we will take the position away," Morris said.
Reasoner said it didn't happen that way.
He also said he and the council were unaware that they were being recorded at the time.
“I didnâ€t agree with the secret taping,†Reasoner said in an earlier interview with the USA TODAY Network - Tennessee. “But I remember in the workshop, he wanted to hire another officer, and he was told that the pay for the officer would equal the revenues from about 210 tickets. We never said he had to write those tickets.â€
Ridgetopâ€s police department covered 1.4 square miles and just over 2,000 residents.
It was a 24-hour department, with patrols scheduled around the clock, Reasoner said.
On average, officers wrote about three tickets apiece during shifts, he noted.
Five police officers were employed by the city before the disbanding of the department Monday. Reasoner said they would all be paid with insurance through the end of June.
more:
https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/lo...418293001/