Article: NC town is disbanding its police department. Some question the motives

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The Mocksville Town Board voted unanimously during a public meeting Tuesday night to disband the police and contract with the Davie County Sheriff’s Office for future law enforcement services — a move officials said will save the town $1.3 million over the next three years. The contact is set to begin July 1.

www.yahoo.com

North Carolina town is disbanding its police department. Some question the motives

The town board attributed the decision to budget cuts. But some say it was “more of a political issue.”
www.yahoo.com www.yahoo.com
 
Probably the town didnt want to carry the liability insurance needed to settle BS anti cop cases so why not dump it and let the sheriff's do it.

Im sure response times will climb as well not being centralized to town anymore.



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From a purely financial stand point … considering the size of Mocksville I’d actually like to see the cost of contracting vs cost of maintaining a police department with salaries, facilities, equipment, fuel costs, insurance, etc. Sure there might be some politically driven BS but contracting with the county might be fiscally smarter …
 
There are a lot of smaller towns in the area that have no dedicated police force and rely on the sheriffs department for coverage. My only/main issue with decisions like this is that the money saved is just funneled into some other government program, as they certainly wont be lowering peoples taxes.
 
I can't remember all the details, but there were a lot of problems with them in recent years, there was a big lawsuit from former and current employees IIRC.
 
BowWow said:
I can't remember all the details, but there were a lot of problems with them in recent years, there was a big lawsuit from former and current employees IIRC.
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This.

Lots of problems. Lots of big fish small pond problems. Lots of good old boy network problems. Lots of law suits. SHP won't work with MPD unless someone's life is in danger.
 
Fun fact. ALL, and I mean ALL laws that the town has made inside the city limits will be null and void. Or at least unenforceable. In NC a Sheriff cannot enforce a city law. They can only enforce county laws/ordinances. Do with that what you will.
 
chiefjason said:
Fun fact. ALL, and I mean ALL laws that the town has made inside the city limits will be null and void. Or at least unenforceable. In NC a Sheriff cannot enforce a city law. They can only enforce county laws/ordinances. Do with that what you will.
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This is part of what I was thinking.

Also, whereas a local PD's duties and responsibilities lie with the town/city, the Sheriff's lie with an entire county. Their town priorities will therefore be triaged with whatever else is going on in the county that the Sheriff's department has to handle.

Not to mention the response time is going to be atrocious in comparison to that of a local PD.

I wonder if there's an ongoing liability issue, too, having read BowWow's link above.
 
chiefjason said:
Fun fact. ALL, and I mean ALL laws that the town has made inside the city limits will be null and void. Or at least unenforceable. In NC a Sheriff cannot enforce a city law. They can only enforce county laws/ordinances. Do with that what you will.
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Easy fix. Just get the county commissioner to grandfather in any laws they want to keep.

As a DC resident I support this decision. MPD doesn't have a good reputation. But the deputies are a good bunch of folks.
 
Les White said:
Easy fix. Just get the county commissioner to grandfather in any laws they want to keep.

As a DC resident I support this decision. MPD doesn't have a good reputation. But the deputies are a good bunch of folks.
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Some of the city laws won’t fly in the county. I don’t think it’s a piece meal process. More likely all or nothing. And the ones the city wanted are likely the ones the county does not want.
 
This whole reeks of a fuster cluck of politics from a few butt hurt city council members crossed with what might be an actual financial base. Financially it might make sense overall but there also seems to have been a few “disagreements” with some MPD ways … more LEO hours being spent at a desk than patrolling to petty crap like a little homeless kitten being taken in and becoming a mascot on social media (with views that hurt sone feelings) and so on. It sounds like some of the council were happy with the Chief but others thought the department was not being run right.

Looking at it from outside … the DCSD is headquartered in Mocksville. It really would not take a lot to adjust patrols for an additional 10 or so sq miles to the DCSD’s 250 sq miles they already cover considering it’s the center of their operations. They could add a few deputies from the MPD … they’re getting equipment already … and not hardly miss a beat. I do feel for the MPD employees who will be looking for new jobs … hopefully the Sheriff knows who is good and can at least pick up a few.

It will be kinda funny when the City Council tries to mess with the Sheriff and realizes they do not have a say in the COUNTY run department.
 
Why would you pay a dime? No need to contract any services. The town is in the county, right? That’s my argument.
 
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NCFubar said:
the DCSD is headquartered in Mocksville. It really would not take a lot to adjust patrols for an additional 10 or so sq miles to the DCSD’s 250 sq miles they already cover considering it’s the center of their operations.
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Just a point of clarification. The DCSO has recently moved to Farmington Rd. and I-40 in the old Boyle's furniture building. And as to the topic at hand, I've heard so many stories from both sides I don't know what to believe anymore.
 
telephoneman said:
Just a point of clarification. The DCSO has recently moved to Farmington Rd. and I-40 in the old Boyle's furniture building. And as to the topic at hand, I've heard so many stories from both sides I don't know what to believe anymore.
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Saw your post and it reminded me I forgot to text you. Tomorrow.
 
BlackGun said:
Why would you pay a dime? No need to contract any services. The town is in the county, right? That’s my argument.
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The savings basically comes from upper level managerial positions and some, not all, telecommunications positions. The county I worked for in NY consolidated all police agencies in the county under the Sheriff in 1983. As having served in LE for 40 years (1977 to 2017) half of that time as a Municipal Police Chief in NC, I feel safe saying in very many instances this type of consolidation improves overall services.
 
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