Plan to scrap Newton's police department off the table

Talks to do away with the police department in what some reports deem Mississippi's "Safest City in the State" are no longer on the table, officials said.

Roughly a month ago while looking at possible remedies to a growing budget problem, Newton Mayor David Carr had mentioned closing down the police department, which employs 18 people, and allowing the sheriff's department to patrol the city. That prompted Police Chief Harvey Curry to address the board of aldermen.

On Tuesday night, Carr openly scrapped the idea at the city board meeting. He said he was just talking about ideas.

"I don’t know, sometimes you float an idea out there to see where it goes. I think people jumped and ran with it," Carr said.

He said there are places where people are combining municipal and county departments.

"What I had looked at, and this time has not come yet, was merging with the county and having the county supply us with 24/7 deputies like we have police. That would save about $300,000 a year," he said. "But that’s just something you don’t do overnight. We’ve been running at a deficit, and we’ve kicked the can as far as we can down the road. It's time to face the music."

Curry said he disliked that idea from the beginning. He said to put the county's largest city — almost 3,400 residents — under patrol by two deputies puts its people at risk for several reasons. First, he said, it doesn't take into account the additional case load that would fall on the criminal investigation department and narcotics units if the city's resources were wiped out. Secondly, if the county has a major incident, those two deputies would more than likely have to provide backup.

Curry also brought up current talks to combine police dispatch and county dispatch, and he said that's a bad idea as well, because dispatchers currently man the police department building at night.

"That means my police department would have to be locked up at night, and I've had people come up there for refuge when somebody's after them," he said. "I’m kind of upset that they’d even think about that. Like I’ve said, people come up there for safety."

But still, the city needs to save money somewhere, Carr said. He said he's got several ideas he'll have to pitch after the first of the year, which include combining dispatches, as well as pay cuts, adjustments to the amount the city pays on family insurance, and furloughs.

"None of these are very popular," he said. "The reason for all this is our revenue over the last five to six years has basically flattened out. Between water and sewer and paving — and we have a bridge that just caved in that will cost us $51,000 to fix — we're depleting reserves quickly."

In addition, Carr said, the city's insurance has gone up 25 percent over the last three years, and revenue hasn't gone up at all.

The mayor does not have voting power, but he does have input.

"I’m going to present to the board several different options. As far as pay cuts, possibly 5 percent would save $120,000 a year. We’re just looking at everything," he said.

Curry said if the discussion about closing the police department down comes up again, he'll continue to fight it.

"In my opinion you can’t put a price on public safety," he said.

Contact Therese Apel at tapel@gannett.com. Follow @TRex21 on Twitter.