Entire Alabama police department put on leave after grand jury recommends its abolition
The mayor of Hanceville, Alabama has placed its entire police department on administrative leave, after a grand jury, said the department was “an ongoing threat to public safety.”
The mayor of a city in Alabama has placed its entire police department on administrative leave, a day after officials announced that a grand jury had recommended the small department be abolished, saying it had “operated as more of a criminal enterprise than a law enforcement agency” and is “an ongoing threat to public safety.”
Jim Sawyer, the mayor of Hanceville, a city of about 3,200 roughly 45 miles north of Birmingham, said in a statement Thursday evening that after an “effective meeting” with Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry, all employees of the police department will be placed on administrative leave effective 5 p.m. Thursday.
Sawyer said all 911 and emergency calls will be routed directly to the sheriff’s office, which will provide all law enforcement services to the city of Hanceville.
At a news conference Wednesday, Cullman County District Attorney Champ Crocker announced that a grand jury had indicted Hanceville Police Chief Jason Shane Marlin and four other officers, as well as one of the officers’ wives, on various charges, which include tampering with evidence, as part of an extensive corruption investigation.
The police department employed only eight officers as of August, when Marlin was sworn in as chief, according to The Cullman Times. A woman who answered the police department’s dispatch line earlier Thursday said there was no one available to speak to a reporter about its size and that the department had no comment about anything. A message left at the chief’s work voicemail was not immediately returned.
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