No confidence in chief vote fails for lack of support

The Pine Bluff City Council again lacked the votes Monday night to pass “no confidence” legislation concerning Police Chief Brenda Davis-Jones.

The proposed resolution also would have urged Mayor Carl A. Redus Jr. to replace her.

The council split 4-3 on the issue, with aldermen Bill Brumett, Wayne Easterly and Thelma Walker voting in favor of the no confidence vote and aldermen George Stepps, Charles Boyd, Glen Brown and Steven Mays voting against it. Alderman Irene Holcomb was absent.

A similar proposal was considered by the council in mid-March but failed in a tied 4-4 vote.

Mays was the only alderman to vote differently Monday than in March. Mays said THAT after the March vote he spoke one-on-one with Davis-Jones, discussing with her areas where she could improve, and he promised to give her a chance.

Redus said he supports the chief and saw no reason for the no-confidence vote.

“Crime is down in this community,” Redus said. “Crime will continue to be down in this community. We are asking our law enforcement officials to continue to do the job that the citizens of this community require of them and ask of them. I am in support of the chief. I am in support of the command staff and the job they are doing. I don’t see any legitimate reasons to have a no-confidence vote.”

Stepps said that it seems to him that the chief and her officers, especially some of the command staff, need to sit down and discuss things. Stepps said he is not sure that complaints about the chief are actually going to her so that she can address them.

Walker said that she has officers and employees come to her to bring up issues because they are afraid Davis-Jones will retaliate against them.

“People are being moved at her whim, however she feels,” Walker said.

“I don’t know where this is coming from that my officers are fearful of me,” Davis-Jones said. “I cannot take somebody’s job without cause.”

Davis-Jones said that she does not retaliate against her employees.

“There is no way in this world I would discipline somebody without having a cause to,” she said.

Redus prevented Walker from asking Davis-Jones any further questions, even over the protest of Mays.

Easterly said he has gotten complaints about Davis-Jones of a volume and nature he has never experienced with any other police chief.

“The only thing I can say about it, is in the last six months I’ve had more complaints from more officers — officers who have been here through at least six police chiefs, I’ve never had the number of complaints,” Easterly said, adding that the complaints are coming from all demographics: males, females and all races. “It’s coming from everywhere. I have not had anybody step up to me and tell me they think things are going well. That’s just the facts.”

Redus responded that he talks to more people than Easterly does and has a better sense of the mood at the department because he “runs the day-to-day operations” and speaks to the police officers on a daily basis. Redus said the members of the public he speaks to are proud of the police department and the things that have been accomplished under Davis-Jones.

Redus read aloud a lengthy list of items he said were compiled by police department staff as a list of improvements and changes that have been made under Davis-Jones. The list included:

• Reduction of overtime from $325,000 to $120,000;

• Reorganization of divisions for more efficiency;

• Reorganization of shifts to 12-hour shifts to put more officers on the streets;

• Bringing the department to full staffing levels, which allowed the department to use a grant that it had been unable to use previously because it could not hire and keep enough officers, allowing the department to hire seven new officers;

• Installing 13 surveillance cameras across the city to aid in investigations;

• Starting a summer youth camp and fall festival, increasing the number of school resource officers and bringing an anti-drug program back to schools;

• Starting the text-a-tip program;

• Increasing the number of female and minority officers;

• Starting the Americorps program;

• Bringing down the crime statistics;

• Starting a ministers advisory group;

• Re-establishing a bike unit;

• Heightening the focus on domestic violence/abuse issues;

• Getting grants;

• And adding to and improving the police vehicle fleet.

“These are things, that I think, show that leadership is obviously working,” Redus said.