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Maybe this town doesn't NEED Police.
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060911/NEWS01/609110345
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060911/NEWS01/609110345
Monday, 09/11/06
Officials work to calm fears after police force quits
By CLAY CAREY
Staff Writer
ALEXANDRIA, Tenn. — Officials here are working to rebuild a police department and a degree of public confidence in the wake of the recent resignation of the town's entire police force.
Police Chief Jim Baker and both of Alexandria's full-time officers left the city at the ends of their shifts on the night of Aug. 23.
Town officials said the force quit over a controversial proposal to save taxpayer money by limiting police activity in Alexandria to the nighttime hours. That idea has since been scrapped, Mayor David Cripps said.
But the possibility of days without police officers, as well as the media attention the police resignations received locally, rattled several residents and business owners in the tiny DeKalb County town.
"I'd rather have my store burned down or stripped to the walls (at night) than to have somebody shot there during the daytime," said Allen Webb, part owner of a drugstore in downtown Alexandria, a block away from the town's police department.
"We're just advertising that our pockets are open, come on and dip your hands in," he said.
Webb said he'd considered hiring private guards to provide extra security at his store. When talk of police cutbacks started, the bank next door did hire guards.
"Our security department just decided it would be an extra measure to have (a private security guard) here until we know what's going to happen," said Kim Talley, manager of the Regions Bank branch in Alexandria.
She said she feels safe inside the bank, one of three in Alexandria. But she's concerned the publicity the proposed cuts and police resignations have generated might encourage outsiders to come to the town to commit a crime.
"We'd probably be OK if it wasn't for that," Talley said. "If it was just contained here in town, people probably wouldn't be worried about it."
Mark Collins became the town's police chief the day after Alexandria's three cops left the force. There was never a point when there were no police officers on duty in Alexandria, city officials said. But Collins, a former captain with the DeKalb County Sheriff's Department, was the town's only cop for about a week.
He has hired one full-time officer since then and expects to hire a second soon. The city will also add a part-time officer to cover a few shifts.
"We're not 24/7 yet, but we will be shortly," Collins said Wednesday.
In the meantime, Collins said, the county sheriff's department has agreed to step up patrols near the remote town.
Mayor Cripps doubts the budget problems that were presented as a reason for cutting department coverage were ever serious enough to warrant slashing daytime patrols.
City Councilman Eddie Tubbs said it could be "a little bit hard" financially to provide that coverage, although the new chief has come up with some money-saving ideas.
"We just have to bite the bullet," Tubbs said. "We've got to do what the people want. The people want us to cover day and night."
