Anyone with a television in the 1970s might remember a curious presentation of dubious talent, absurdity and mirth: The Gong Show. It was a game show in which performing contestants vied for a small cash prize. If their display was suitably bad, celebrity judges would bang a large gong, signaling that the contestant’s time was ended.
A similarly resonant tone emanated from the Pine Bluff City Council chambers this past Monday night. As reported in the Commercial, a no-confidence vote on Police Chief Brenda Davis-Jones was taken by the local affiliate of the Southern States Police Benevolent Association, a professional organization that represents the majority of Pine Bluff police officers. The vote indicates the officers have no confidence in Davis-Jones’ ability to lead the department, Scott Hicks, president of the Arkansas Division of the PBA, said.
“The chapter made the decision to take this vote due to Chief Davis-Jones’ inconsistent disciplinary practices and inability to follow department procedure consistently. The PBA’s lack of confidence is with Chief Davis-Jones and her lack of leadership within the department. The chief on multiple occasions has shown that she does not enforce discipline equally or consistently. The lack of disciplinary consistency has become a huge barrier within the department,” Hicks told the council.
In response, Davis-Jones did what she has done in the face of other unflattering revelations: She left the meeting without comment. A reporter later called her city cell phone and left a message that went unanswered.
Mayor Carl A. Redus Jr. characterized the vote as “just an opinion being stated.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
He is correct. It is just an opinion — an opinion that appears to be increasingly validated and shared by others. Given the wave of overturned disciplinary actions, the widely discussed exodus of experienced officers, a crime rate that bucks national trends, and an obvious rift in the upper echelon of the police administration, how could anyone have much confidence?
Of course the mayor, Davis-Jones’ most stalwart defender, is publicly unflinching in defense of his appointee. As he told the Commercial, “I truly still have full confidence in the chief and continue to expect her to carry on with the good job she’s been doing for the city.”
On one hand, we admire the mayor’s fealty. On the other, it’s time for him to own the magnitude of the situation.
Police departments are not unlike the military in some important respects. Officers, like soldiers, don’t fight to be heroic. They fight to protect each other. As professional cultures go, it is one of the tightest. To be effective, the officers must be bonded to one another. They must trust one another implicitly. There must be an unwavering loyalty and confidence throughout the officer corps. If any of that is absent, the whole enterprise falls asunder.
It can be argued that is exactly what we are now witnessing. Morale, obviously, is low. The fact that there was a vote taken regarding no confidence of the chief speaks to that sad status. Almost every week a new intrigue emerges from the police administration. In moments of candor, officers readily reveal their uncertainty and concern. These are not the hallmarks of a well-oiled machine. They are the sounds of an organization in trouble. When one part of the whole falters, we all feel it. We all pay a price.
We find a parallel to this in the words of English poet, John Donne, “No man is an island, entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less… Each man’s death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.”
As gongs go, this one is becoming louder, clearer and less escapable.