Bad ideas come and go, generally with no harm done.
But sometimes, it’s not the idea that presents a danger, but how the idea was formed that can have enduring consequences.
During Tuesday’s city council meeting, Mayor Keith Gaskin proposed creating the position of town marshal as a direct response to the surge of violent crime.
The mayor’s plan, which he emailed to council members and posted on the mayor’s Facebook page, would have promoted a member of the CPD already identified as good fit for the job to a position whose job duties closely resemble those already assigned to the Columbus Police Chief Fred Shelton.
That person, Gaskin said, has a unique skill set that allows him to build trust in the community that other police officers do not enjoy. As town marshal, he would be autonomous, yet report to the police chief and mayor and the council. (The mayor initially said the marshal would answer only to him.) He would also be deputized by the county. He would have no officers under his command but have relationships with officers that would allow him to obtain their assistance. He would have a similar working relationship with the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office as well as be a liaison to the city’s schools.
The person Gaskin described has almost mystical powers: Town marshal aka Batman.
Gaskin said he has talked it over with both Sheriff Eddie Hawkins and Shelton and both said having a city marshal could be helpful.
The idea went over like a lead balloon during the council meeting, for reasons that should be obvious. For starters, adding the position would create confusion in the chain of command, diffuse responsibility and accountability at the highest level of policing, potentially strains the relationship between the police department and city hall, and undermines public confidence in the police department in general and Shelton in particular.
The biggest flaw is perhaps the idea that substantially reducing crime is as simple as creating a new position in city government.
The town marshal idea appears to be dead and buried.
But we fear how the idea was formed is symptomatic of a deeper flaw, one that may be repeated in different forms for a mayoral administration that is only in its seventh month.
The mayor continues to have a serious communication issue. It seems as though he hears, but doesn’t listen.
About 10 minutes after Gaskin told the council that Shelton had signed off on the town marshal idea, Ward 3 councilman Rusty Greene asked Shelton if he, indeed, agreed that a town marshal would be useful.
“I don’t think it would be helpful at this time,” Shelton said, later going even farther: “It would kill morale.”
Shelton proceeded to lay out his case clearly, even bluntly, when given the opportunity to speak before the city council.
The best tool to fight crime is manpower, he said.
Shelton said his department is seriously undermanned — 48 officers in a department that needs 70. The city doesn’t offer a competitive pay rate for police officers, he said, noting that at its last recruiting event only five people showed up. He proposed using the money that would be spent on a marshal instead be spent on raises for existing officers. Shelton said there 677 open cases with only seven investigators, which equates to about 98 cases per investigator.
“How can one investigator handle that many cases?” Shelton said. “He can’t.”
Shelton said his department has responded to 2,400 calls since the beginning of the year. His officers are working hard, he said, and effectively.
“We had eight murder cases last year,” he said. “All eight of them were solved.”
The mayor said his town marshal proposal was rooted in wanting to support the police department. Shelton’s candid assessment of the idea makes it clear that no one bothered to ask him what would best support the department.
The mayor has repeatedly said he has an open door and welcomes meeting with people.
But as we’ve seen previously in disputes with the council over issues such as a financial audit and job descriptions, it appears the mayor only hears what he wants to hear, that his mind is made up before those meetings take place.
Leaders must be active listeners. They must be open-minded. They must trust the expertise of others when they have limited experience with the topic being discussed.
We fear the mayor falls short in each of those cases.
The town marshal matter is just the latest manifestation of that.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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