PERU, Ind. (AP) - A northern Indiana city recently hit by a shake-up of some of its top officers has hired an attorney to conduct a comprehensive review of its police department’s policies and procedures.
The Peru Board of Works approved a request Thursday from Police Chief Jonie Kennedy to hire an attorney with the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy to conduct the review.
Kennedy said it’s been years since the department’s 31 policy sections have been subjected to a comprehensive review.
“It’s a very intense process, but this guy has 30 years of professional experience, so I think it will best benefit the city and department to do it this way,” she told the Kokomo Tribune (https://bit.ly/1gSOVH7 ).
The policy review follows a move earlier this month by six ranking Peru police officers who resigned their posts and returned to patrol duties over issues with Kennedy’s management of the department. The city’s Board of Works promoted six patrolmen and moved them to fill the vacant ranked positions.
Kennedy said her request for a review was not prompted by the staffing shake-up.
But with the resignations and promotions, she said she believed it was a good time to make policy changes such as creating more thorough job descriptions and clarifying procedures that are sometimes vague.
Kennedy said the review process will take around six months to complete and cost Peru, a city about 65 miles north of Indianapolis, around $5,000.
“To me, for the public to best be served and our department to better understand our policies and procedures, it’s money well spent,” she said.
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Information from: Kokomo Tribune, https://www.ktonline.com
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