The predictability of Pine Bluff Police Chief Brenda Davis-Jones latest imbroglio is but another nail in the coffin of local criminal justice. While we tire at having to recount yet one more scandalous lapse, we are nonetheless obliged.
As recently reported by the Commercial, Davis-Jones, who earns an annual base salary of $80,286 in her “full-time” job as Pine Bluff’s police chief, is apparently being granted free rent for working as “courtesy officer” at the apartment complex in which she resides.
Attached to a letter addressed to “all residents” by Benita Clinard, manager of the Fountain Square Apartments at 3201 South Beech Street, is a copy of Davis-Jones’ police department business card, which includes her office telephone number. Written across the card is another number, which is Davis-Jones’ city-issued cell phone.
According to the letter, Davis-Jones’ duties include assisting residents who locked themselves out of their apartments. The letter also mentions a $20 fee associated with the assistance. “Do not go to her (Davis-Jones’) door or call her without having the money first.”
That’s a line with which the citizens of Pine Bluff are all too familiar. One supposes that also includes the money for the departmentally-issued pink-covered iPhone, to which her neighbors now have the number. Even Alderman Bill Brumett hasn’t been privileged with her cell number, he said. One wonders whether she returns their calls.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
We would have liked to have reported her version of the situation, but as per her well established habit, she has again failed to return our call. Perhaps she was busy retrieving keys for residents of her apartment complex.
When asked for comment on the situation, Pine Bluff Mayor Carl Redus, Jr. said he was aware of her arrangement and saw nothing wrong with it. Of course he doesn’t. Excusing the inexcusable — or at least the self-serving and dubiously ethical — is a defining feature of the Redus regime.
Redus’ own words both strain credulity and show the extent to which this administration will contort professional ethics to suit its own ends. “There’s no monetary exchange involved,” Redus said. “She’s just providing some security for her rent. There’s nothing in the city policy that would disallow this. I don’t see a policy violation, so I don’t see any need for dialogue with the council.” Really? He believes the council wouldn’t want to know about this?
Redus said Davis-Jones has previously been acting in her “courtesy” capacity.
“She was unofficially providing security before,” Redus said. “As a tenant there herself, other tenants had a tendency to call on her for assistance, and management recognized this and worked out an agreement with her.”
If Davis-Jones is living rent-free, there is monetary exchange. The fact that the exchange takes the form of free rent does not alter the fact that she receives something of considerable, material and taxable value for services she renders. It is a payment, no matter how the mayor colors it.
According to Clinard’s letter, Davis-Jones “will handle day-to-day problems that arise” at the site. The chief is to lock the laundry room there at 10 p.m. each day, but may also lock it without announcement “at any time she deems necessary.”
“She is here for you,” the letter concludes. “She will be working very closely with management to address any and all problems that arise on the property.”
Lovely. “She’s here for you” — if you reside at Fountain Square. What about the rest of us? What about the dozen people murdered in Pine Bluff this year? What about Clea Hall’s family? What about the hundreds of crime victims spread across this town like a blanket of broken glass? With such a crime-ridden city, do the police chief’s attentions need to be diluted and distracted with the duties of what amounts to a part-time job? We think not.
Lastly — and perhaps most importantly — why does the city’s highest paid department head need another job and free rent? As police chief she makes more than two and a half times the median Pine Bluff income. Hers is hardly a charity case. Insofar as public opinion goes, the charity has run its course.