The second meeting of January was one of the most bizarre meetings I’ve ever covered in my 16-year career in community journalism.
That was the first time I’ve ever seen a department head of a city police department be releived of his duties during an executive session of a board of aldermen or a city council. I knew something was up when District Attorney Steven Kilgore was there, especially when he didn’t speak in open session.
Many times, I’ve seen leaders like that show up to meetings, but they are usually there supporting one of their own projects, such as trying get the city behind a project to reduce crime, such as some kind of youth or first-time offender intervention program. That is pretty normal.
I don’t expect a district attorney to meet with aldermen during an executive session. That’s what happened on Jan. 21 at Newton City Hall. Last week, I caught up with Mr. Kilgore and tried to piece together what happened.
From what I understood, Mr. Kilgore met with the board to discuss a “report card” that he had compiled on the Newton Police Department. This is something that Kilgore will eventually do for each of the departments throughout the Eighth Circuit. Some of those reports will be a couple of years later.
However, Newton was brought to the front of the line because it was down to only two certified officers. While I know it is difficult to find certified officers in this area, two certified officers is way too few for a city the size of Newton.
Mr. Kilgore looked at the cases on file. They looked to see what percentage were closed vs. the number of cases resulting in conviction. He also examined why cases were closed, and those were documented.
That caused Kilgore to expedite the report, and that report was initially delivered to Mayor Murray Weems and Board Attorney Brian Mayo. They encouraged Kilgore to come to the next board meeting and present it to the board.
I don’t know what was discussed in executive session or what caused the aldermen to take the action immediately after the report was given, but the next thing I know Police Chief Harvey Curry was escorted out of City Hall.
Covering the board for as long as I have, I know the board has met with Harvey on more than one occasion behind closed doors, as they have met with other department heads to discuss issues.
There have been some issues discussed in open session regarding the police department, but I did not have a clue that would happen then. As far as I know based on my conversations with Mr. Kilgore, no charges will be filed against Harvey based on the report. And I have no reason to suspect that criminal activity was committed by him or his officers.
While no one with the city has commented on the record about this, I can only suspect the termination was based on job performance. (If city officials want to confirm or deny that, they are welcome to give me a call.)
I was also shocked that the board went ahead and selected a new police chief. While I know the board is within its right to do that, I do think it would have been nice to delay the decision on a permanent chief until the job could be posted, and candidates could have applied for the position.
This is not a slight to Randy Patrick. I like Randy, and I think he will do a great job. With a position like police chief, there should be a selcction process that needs to be followed to give everyone an equal chance to apply.
That being said, I wish Randy and the police department the best moving forward from this difficult time. I know the police officers have been through a lot in the last few weeks. We believe in you, and we suport you.
Brent Maze is the publisher of the Appeal. Contact Brent at bmaze@newtoncountyappeal.com.
