Columbus Police Chief Joseph Daughtry is planning to “temporarily” pull his officers out of the Joint Narcotics Task Force this week.
Daughtry called a press conference Tuesday afternoon at the Municipal Complex to announce the change, which he said is driven by manpower needs at the department and an attempt to manage overtime.
“We are temporarily pulling our officers out of the narcotics task force,” he said. “We are doing it because we have both overtime issues and a manpower shortage.”
The task force was formed via an interlocal agreement between Columbus City Council and Lowndes County Board of Supervisors in 2017.
It is made up of nine officers: four each from the Columbus Police Department and Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office, and one supervisor from the LCSO.
“We have a lot of things happening within this city and we have to reallocate manpower and put it different places,” Daughtry said. “I told the (council) when I got here that I was going to make some decisions that some people were not going to like, but I don’t want anyone to take this and make it seem like it’s me against (Lowndes County Sheriff Eddie Hawkins).”
CPD currently has about 45 officers on staff and is budgeted for 55, Daughtry said. He said he wants all available manpower focused on the violent crime problem.
“I think the citizens of this city understand we have a drug problem,” Daughtry said. “But I’m tired of senior citizens being woken up in the middle of the night because of gunfire, and I’m tired of citizens being concerned by people who are just randomly shooting in this city. We are going to address that in a very, very strong way.”
The interlocal agreement governing the task force requires 90 days notice to be given before the task force is dissolved. Daughtry said he is not dissolving the task force.
“I don’t have the right or the power to disband any agreement the council is involved in,” Daughtry said. “But I do have the right to run day-to-day operations, and I do have the charge to make sure the citizens are safe. … The citizens of Columbus deserve better coverage.”
Daughtry said while the reassignment is temporary, he didn’t have a timeline for when Columbus officers could be returned to the task force.
“We’re putting people through the academy now, and once those people start graduating and our numbers start going up, the sheriff and I can sit down again and have a conversation,” Daughtry said. “… Once the manpower is back up, I don’t have a problem with (putting officers back on the task force).”
Daughtry said he wants to explore state partnerships, as well.
“We’re looking to partner with the Mississippi Department of Public Safety,” he said. “We have had officers who applied prior to me being here to be part of their Violent Crime Task Force. Instead of county wide, we will have statewide resources. Instead of buying equipment, we can borrow it from (MDPS).”
County: Withdrawal ‘unfortunate’
Hawkins told The Dispatch Tuesday morning that Daughtry had told him of his intention last week.
“As of last week, (Daughtry) contacted me and he advised me he wanted to remove his four agents and reassign them at the police department, basically dissolving the interlocal agreement,” Hawkins said.
Hawkins said he thought it was an “unfortunate” decision because it led to both agencies duplicating efforts.
“I’ve worked narcotics in this county for 30 years, and I’ve seen it when the city had their own separate unit,” he said. “When that happens, you’re duplicating efforts and resources. … We’re using the same informants and buying from the same violators. When the cases get to the grand jury, we have duplicate cases. It’s almost like a wasted effort to get an end result.”
Hawkins said he would welcome city officers coming back to the task force.
“I don’t want to bust up the unit,” he said. “The unit is working good, and they’ve got some good cases now. Pulling his men out basically cuts the unit in half. I don’t want the unit to disband. This is not my idea. It’s his idea.”
Hawkins added he wants it clear that the city can’t keep pulling officers out.
“If he gets his staffing levels where they need to be and he wants to put guys back in the unit, I’m for that,” he said. “But I want an understanding that we can’t just keep jerking them out every time he wants to do something different.”
Board of Supervisors President Trip Hairston said he had not been informed the city wanted to pull out of the agreement.
“We did not get any notification from the city council,” he said. “We have our attorney (Tim Hudson) looking at the interlocal agreement to find why that is and how it can happen … At this point we just need to know on Thursday if we’re going to be in violation of the interlocal agreement.”
Hairston said he hoped the supervisors would hear from the council soon.
“If they need to come to our board with a plan and scheme for how they are going to make this work, I’m all ears,” he said. “I’m supportive of that, but we have an (interlocal) agreement in place and we have not been properly notified.”
City Attorney Jeff Turnage did not respond to a request for comment by press time regarding whether Daughtry’s decision violated the interlocal agreement.
Mayor and council response
Mayor Keith Gaskin issued a statement via text message to The Dispatch Tuesday afternoon.
“The decision by the command staff at CPD to temporarily pull officers from the (task force) is to address an overtime issue within the CPD and the need for officers on patrol,” he wrote. “I look forward to the police department and sheriff’s office working together and finding a solution that helps with the challenges before us.”
Ward 4 Councilman Pierre Beard told The Dispatch on Tuesday afternoon he supports the plan.
“He’s still short on manpower. These are guys out there that he can bring back in to utilize,” Beard said. “I don’t see anything wrong with it at all.”
Ward 6 Councilwoman Jacqueline DiCicco told The Dispatch that she thinks pulling four officers out of the task force will “cripple” it.
“I had not been made aware of his decision,” DiCicco said. “I know there is an interlocal agreement with the sheriff’s department, and if he’s pulling his guys out he’s going to cripple that unit. As far as I know, we have not had a meeting to discuss this.”
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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