The City of Bangs is facing a dwindling police force; however, Mayor Eric Bishop stated that there are no plans to dissolve the police department and that the city will continue to have law enforcement coverage.
The city’s three officers, a chief and two patrolmen, were at full staff until the former Chief of Police Troy Grusendorf resigned in late August. The city’s two patrolmen split long hours making sure the town was safe during the resulting vacancy, Bishop said.
He stated that the two patrolmen had applied to work for other local municipalities a while back and that Officer Brian Rice was hired by Brownwood Police and left Bangs on Thursday of last week. The remaining officer, Andre Smoot, was recently hired by the Early Police Department, confirmed Bishop who stated that Smoot had given the city two week’s notice. “Both officers,” he explained, “had been under consideration from these departments for some time.”
“Everybody is struggling to keep people (speaking of smaller towns) because we aren’t able to compete with resources. Larger departments have a more defined role for their officers and nobody calls them at home in the middle of the night to cover their shift,” explained Bishop. “It’s just a reality for a community our size.”Bishop stated that the City of Bangs has been advertising for a new chief and for patrol officers. He said that 60 applicants have been received for the position of chief, 20 of which are “bonafied candidates” for the job. There have also been approximately 19 applications for the patrol officers’ positions. Bishop stated that at least 5 of these “look good on paper.”
“I haven’t fully dissected their credentials, but there are at least 20 good candidates (for the chief’s position) with the credentials we set out in our advertising,” said Bishop.
When Grusendorf resigned, Bishop stated that the City of Bangs had made an agreement with the Brown County Sheriff’s Department to help cover the shortage of officers.
“The Sheriff’s Office is responding to calls,” Bishop stated. “They have been responsive to help in the short term.”
Bishop explained that the city is working to have a new officer on the streets by the time Officer Smoot leaves his position. He explained that the situation is “not as bad as it seems.” Although the last 6 chiefs have been fired or given their resignations because they were going to be fired, Bishop stated that the city has learned a lesson about hiring a new chief and that not all of these chiefs were of bad character.
“They can’t all be bad people, the past three were someone who was on staff with a past chief when they were hired,” said Bishop. “We are going through an exhaustive process now.”
He explained that the city is working to appoint a hiring committee that will first identify the best 15 applicants and then narrow the pool to the top 5 for the chief position. Then the entire city council will be involved in the process to determine the best person for the job. The timeline for the hiring of a new chief, he estimated, will be around the first of the year.
In the meantime, Bishop stated that the city will do the best they can to hire two officers with integrity, hopefully before a new chief comes to the office.
“The intention is to bolster the coverage of town until we get a new chief,” said Bishop.
Bishop stated that although the department has suffered a lot of vacancies, that the caliber of officers within the city’s force has been good in the past and that the city is looking forward to the future in a positive light.
“This situation shows that we have good officers if departments like Brownwood and Early want to hire them. It says what caliber of individuals they (Rice and Smoot) are,” complimented Bishop. “We can’t ask them to put opportunities for their families on hold.”
As far as candidates for the vacant positions, Bishop stated, “I’m encouraged by the caliber of candidates we’ve gotten. It’ll be okay even if the Sheriff’s Office has to help us out. One way or another, we’re going to come out on the other side. We have no plans to dissolve the department.”
