A Columbus police investigator is out of a job after he drove a city vehicle to apply for employment in another town while he was on duty.
City councilmen voted 4-2 in executive session Tuesday to terminate Reginald Adams for “job performance and misconduct,” city sources confirmed off the record. Adams attended Tuesday’s meeting and appeared before the council during executive session.
City Attorney Jeff Turnage confirmed the reason for termination and margin of the vote, though he did not release the employee’s name.
Adams drove a city vehicle to Moorhead — a town in Sunflower County about 132 miles from Columbus — to apply for its police chief position on Jan. 31, multiple Columbus officials previously confirmed to The Dispatch. He was on duty at the time and not authorized to travel out of town according to the sources.
Sources said Chief Fred Shelton initially planned to recommend a 10-day suspension for Adams, though Shelton would not comment on the issue. It is unclear what the chief recommended Tuesday evening.
Adams was first hired at CPD as a patrol officer in November 2016, moving to the criminal investigations division in January 2018. His rate of pay was $15.75 per hour at the time of his termination.
In his first four months in CID, Adams racked up 338 hours, including being authorized to drive the mayor and city planner to a Federal Home Loan Bank conference in New Orleans. His paid overtime in that period, which The Dispatch reported, outpaced all the other investigators and was 144 hours more than the next highest.
Shelton also sent Adams to retrieve part-time officer Louis Alexander in March 2018, after Alexander had been stopped in Starkville for driving under the influence. Alexander, who was off-duty at the time of the stop, was not ticketed, and Adams brought him back to Columbus in a city vehicle.
Managing Editor Zack Plair and Reporter Amanda Lien contributed to this report.
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