Jon Ostendorff

ASHEVILLE – Forty-four city police officers have signed a petition saying they lack confidence in department leaders amid what they described as widespread problems at the agency.

The petition points to low staffing levels that have seen 41 percent of the department's overtime budget consumed in one quarter, forced overtime, low morale they said is forcing officers to leave in unprecedented numbers and administrative failures, such as allowing radar certifications to expire.

The officers said they feel "Asheville is not best served by its current police department leadership and request that these issues be addressed," according to the petition.

It was delivered to City Manager Gary Jackson and Police Chief William Anderson.

The city provided a copy in response to a request from Asheville Citizen-Times on Thursday.

The move by rank-and-file officers is unusual. Until now, Anderson has only faced criticism from within the department publicly from two lieutenants.

Jackson, in a written statement, said he is taking the petition seriously.

"We value the views of all of our officers and Asheville citizens," he said. "As we move forward with implementing the recently adopted strategic plan for the future of the Asheville Police Department, we intend to monitor closely the progress of the department. We will give the input of the petitioners thoughtful consideration within that process. Progress reports will be shared with citizens, police personnel, and media as they become available."

Influential city ministers on Friday stood up for Anderson saying a group of disgruntled cops are behind criticism of the department.

Rev. Keith Ogden, president of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance of Asheville & Buncombe County, said he got a letter from a group of concerned citizens about the issue.

"In my estimation, this is nothing more than an attempt to discredit, railroad and assassinate the character of highly decorated police officer" he said in coming to Anderson's defense.

Also on Friday, Republican state Rep. Tim Moffitt is asking North Carolina's top prosecutor to investigate the Asheville Police Department for corruption.

"For far too long, elected officials and others have looked the other way while the cancer of corruption has clearly grown within the Asheville Police Department," he wrote in his letter to Attorney General Roy Cooper.

The department has 217 sworn officers though some are not able to respond to calls on their own. Seventeen officers are in training school, nine in field training and three are to start soon. Ten officers were on continuous or intermittent leave in September, the most recent month for which those totals were available.

Anderson in a statement said the department was going through changes identified in an operational plan introduced in July.

"We are working and have been working hard at bringing about change within the organization, and I believe we have made some progress," he said in the statement.

Anderson has faced criticism from two lieutenants starting in 2013, about a year after he took the job in Asheville.

Lt. Bill Wilke, in July, 2013, alleged Anderson and Capt. Stony Gonce pulled him out of an interview with State Bureau of Investigation agents and tried to convince him to lie about a car wreck involving Anderson's son, Chad.

The chief's son wrecked on Montford Avenue in March 2013. He left the scene and later told police a man he knew only as "Dianty" was driving and that Dianty fled on foot after the crash.

Following the accident, his father responded to a Citizen-Times reporter's question about the wreck by saying he did not believe his son was driving, in part because the car's windshield was broken and his son had no abrasions on his head. The police investigation was ongoing when the chief made the statement.

His statement caused District Attorney Ron Moore to call in the SBI.

Chad Anderson eventually pleaded guilty to charges associated with the wreck.

Jackson, in an internal investigation, found Anderson was wrong to pull Wilke out of the interview but said he had not tried to coerce him.

After Wilke's complaint, Lt. Mark Byrd filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The agency approved his right to sue the city on a claim that he was retaliated against because his wife, a former officer, sued the department for sexual harassment.

Byrd has again filed a complaint. This time he has a grievance with the city's Civil Service Board about being transferred to the logistics department from patrol.

He said his transfer was punishment for writing a memo that said the police department did not have enough officers to adequately cover the downtown business district, said his attorney, John Hunter.

In an August email to his boss and other lieutenants, Byrd also flagged speed detection devices that were not certified. Radar guns are calibrated yearly to ensure accuracy. The devices are certified for use after calibration.

Byrd suggested the department stop using the radar guns until they could be certified. No one approved the suggestion. Anderson said he was never informed of the problem.

The department has since discovered 250 tickets that could be thrown out. People who have been convicted could ask the court to clear their records.

Officers in the petition filed Thursday said they "fully stand behind Lt. Mark Byrd" and have known about many of the problems that have recently surfaced in news reports. "Due to fear of reprisals and overall lack of confidence in leadership to handle the issues, many have not made their concerns known prior to the writing of this letter," the officers said in the petition

Anderson left police chief jobs in Greenville, N.C., and Florida amid controversy.

In Greenville, he told City Council members they were not doing enough to help police control downtown violence. The city manager there disagreed with him.

In Florida, he faced allegations of racism and complaints about disciplinary actions, according to news accounts there. He denied there were allegations of racism in an interview after taking the job in Asheville.