McComb selectmen again discussed police officers serving as private security on Tuesday, but raised questions about whether they should do so and where on-duty officers spend their time and effort.
The matter came to the board last month when Gatlin reported that Icehouse owner Bob Budhiraja asked about hiring officers to sit outside his business and act as security.
Board attorney Angela Cockerham told board members that state law requires the board to spread on its minutes the approval of individual officers each time they are allowed to work such details, as well as the uniform and weapon they are allowed to wear.
Mayor Quordiniah Lockley reiterated those rules for board members Tuesday in Cockerham’s absence.
“Can we send officers to Community Parks to do this?” Selectman Devante Johnson asked.
Lockley said the city could not just make off-duty officers work like that, but the apartment complex could request officers as Budhijraja did.
Gatlin pleaded with board members to support officers working security, saying the presence of uniformed officers works as a deterrent.
He said a bunch of people and cars blocking Broadway in the vicinity of the Icehouse recently quickly dispersed once police arrived.
“I’m just putting this out there,” Gatlin said. “We’ve got a problem. Let’s fix it. Doing the same thing is insanity. The more visual our officers are, the better off we’ll be. We need to be proactive.”
“I hear what you’re saying,” Selectman Shawn Williams said. “But why can’t we try to use these tactics citywide? We’ve got communities that have high crime.”
Gatlin said the department could consider changes to focus areas and patrol routes.
Selectman Ronnie Brock asked if city and police officials are involved in setting or distributing pay from security gigs to the officers involved, and Gatlin replied that he has worked with business owners as a go-between to help set a rate of pay.
He said about $30 per hour is a “pretty standard rate” for security duty.
“I really don’t want my guys to negotiate with club owners,” Gatlin said.
He said the department has developed a rotation of officers to serve on security details, so that there’s no perception of favorites being chosen for the opportunity to get extra money.
He said he would have business owners or managers deliver checks to the police department, so they can be placed in the officers’ mailboxes.
Johnson objected, saying, “Since this is a private entity they’re working for, I think they should pick it up from him.”
Gatlin’s method, however, is “like getting it in the mail,” Selectman Donovan Hill said. “I don’t see a problem with it.”
The matter will be on the agenda for action during Tuesday’s board meeting.
Also headed for wednesday action is the ratification of a car purchase for the police department.
City Administrator Kelvin Butler told board members that the city took delivery in November of a Dodge Charger for the police department that was never approved by the board.
The more than $21,000 car was ordered in August — with an insurance settlement of about $14,000 intended to cover part of the cost — as a replacement for a car that was totaled by a falling tree limb during a storm, Butler said, and presenting the matter to the board “fell through the cracks.”
“That’s a substantial amount of money,” Johnson said. “How did this happen?”
Butler said it was a busy time with the new board taking office the month before, and it was just forgotten, though then-police Chief Scott McKenzie had sent in the paperwork to have the matter put on the board agenda.
He said he “makes purchases every day,” and accidentally signed off on the paperwork to make the purchase on state contract without getting the matter on the agenda.
Brock asked how Butler would prevent such an oversight in the future, and Hill suggested having requests for agenda items submitted to two people rather than just Butler.
City Clerk Servia Fortenberry said requests already come to her as well, but she and Butler said they would consider the matter and keep a closer eye on agenda requests.
