A small Alabama city disbanded an entire police force after learning they couldn’t fire the officers who made racist comments.
The city of Vincent, located within Shelby County, about 35 miles southwest of Birmingham, had investigated racist text messages from one of the city’s three police officers. In the text, the officer made a harmful joke related to slavery. The officers involved were placed on administrative leave but were not fired due to legal statutes. The public was outraged and voiced their concerns since the messages were shared on August 2nd.
The joke came from one officer and read: “What do y’all call a pregnant slave?” An identified recipient responded with a question mark. The original sender replied, “BOGO Buy one, get one free.”
Former Vincent Police Chief James Srygley believed that “appropriate disciplinary action” had already been taken. However, the community demanded more be done. Two of the officers retired as soon as the texts were made public, and a third was reassigned.
Therefore, the Vincent City Council voted on an ordinance Thursday that temporarily abolished its police department after a two-hour public hearing. This allowed Mayor James Latimer to legally remove the officers from their positions and the city payroll.
Most of the residents pleaded with the City Council during the August 18th meeting to save the police department. Most were concerned about long response times to emergencies.
City Council members came up with a temporary solution to this issue. Once the dissolution is finalized in the upcoming days, the city will contract police services from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office for a year until a new police force can be established.
“There is still that opportunity to bring the Vincent Police Department back. It’s going to take a good bit of time to go through that process,” Latimer stated.
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