GREENWOOD, Miss. (AP) - Mayor Carolyn McAdams said the search for a new police chief for Greenwood 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.
The Greenwood Commonwealth reported (https://bit.ly/1awMHNz) that city policy bars officers from being employed by other jurisdictions that have police powers. The policy came to the forefront when the mayor derailed the nomination of Rob Banks for the police chief’s job.
Banks, 35, is a Carroll County constable and a criminal and narcotics investigator with the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department.
Banks says if he got the job as Greenwood’s police chief, he would resign from the Sheriff’s Department but would continue to serve as constable, an elected position, until his term expires in 2015.
Initially, both McAdams and City Attorney Don Brock maintained that constables do not have police powers and so Banks, under Greenwood’s policy, could hold both jobs.
That position however, was refuted by Banks during a Jan. 7 meeting of the City Council.
Banks said constables do have the power to write tickets and make arrests.
That led the council to postpone indefinitely a vote on his nomination as police chief.
McAdams said that while Banks’ name is “still on the table” as a contender for police chief, she hasn’t talked to him about it.
Banks was one of five finalists under consideration for the job, which has an annual salary of $58,000.
The mayor said she is inclined to relax the prohibition on police officers working for other law enforcement agencies.
According to acting Police Chief Johnny Langdon, the policy was adopted because of concerns about city liability for an officer’s employment elsewhere.
But McAdams said the city’s insurance carrier has told her moonlighting is not a factor in Greenwood’s coverage.
Greenwood employees can’t get rich on their city salaries alone, she said.
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Information from: The Greenwood Commonwealth, https://www.gwcommonwealth.com
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