Beth LeBlanc

Times Herald

The Memphis Police Department's seven part-time officers and one full-time officer are on paid administrative leave.

The Memphis City Council voted to shut down the city's police department temporarily Thursday.

“Macomb and St. Clair counties will be taking over until we hire a new chief,” Memphis Mayor Eric Schneider said.

“We’re changing the locks. Everybody’s on administrative leave until we can establish a clear chain of command.”

Schneider said the city council held an emergency meeting Thursday and voted to suspend police operations. He stressed the move was not punitive, but a means to establish clear chain of command at the department.

All department employees were asked to turn in department-issued equipment, including badges, ID, keys, weapons and radios.

“There’s no connection between city council and the police department,” Schneider said. “We didn’t have a second in command when Kevin passed away. We’ve basically been floundering and trying to hold things together.”

Scott Sheets, a former Memphis police chief who is now a part-time officer at the department, said the news was "disheartening."

"An officer showed up this morning and there was a note on the front door," Sheets said. "None of us knew anything about this."

The handwritten note told officers Memphis police operations had been suspended and officers should call the mayor. Sheets said officers were then directed to pick up a letter at the city offices explaining the suspension.

"When they take our IDs and badges that's stripping us of all our police powers," Sheets said. He worried it might also affect the officers' certification. He said officers are considering contacting the Police Officers Association.

"This really hasn't happened, to my knowledge, before," Sheets said.

Schneider said the decision to suspend police operations was made in collaboration with the Macomb County Sheriff Department.

“If you have somebody helping and they give you advice, and they strongly give you advice, you better take it,” Schneider said.

“We were in a position where we didn’t know what’s going on … It’s hard just to get a return phone call from some of my employees and that makes me nervous.

“The council lost confidence that there was control over there.”

The small city bordering St. Clair and Macomb counties is in the midst of searching for a new police chief — it’s fifth in as many years.

The city received 11 applications and is reviewing them with the help of the Macomb County Sheriff Department to narrow down the list.

“We’re hoping to get it down to five or less and then we will go through the process,” Schneider said. “Hopefully, we’ll be doing interviews in a month.”

Chief Kevin Sommers died of complications from an emergency surgery Jan. 1.

Sommers had been hired in August, and was working to correct some long-standing issues at the department. Last summer, the Macomb County Sheriff Department identified several problems at the department, including missing firearms and police radios, missing evidence, and improper record keeping.

The Macomb County Sheriff Department had been managing the department after former Chief Scott Sheets was demoted to part-time officer in the wake of a controversy about the city’s reserve officer program.

Sheets had replaced former Chief Jessica Koveck, who was let go in July 2014 following an on-duty crash involving a police cruiser and FedEx truck.

Koveck (formerly Beels) had replaced former Chief Elena Danishevskaya in July 2011.

Schneider said Memphis residents should not experience significant changes in services while the department is on hiatus. He said 911 calls will be handled as they always have been, but a St. Clair County or Macomb County car will respond instead of a Memphis police car.

“If someone wants to file a report, they’ll have to go to their respective sheriff department,” Schneider said.

He added the city’s school liaison position would not be affected by the shut down.

Schneider said finding a chief with management experience is key for the city.

“We’re trying to hire an administrator so we need people with command experience,” Schneider said.

The possibility of having sheriff departments in St. Clair or Macomb counties policing the city permanently has been mentioned before, Schneider said. But he said there are some impediments to the plan.

Schneider said the cost of hiring either department is far above the city’s police budget. He said to hire an outside agency to police the area would mean a change of the city’s charter, which requires a police chief.

“We’re in two counties — that complicates things, too — and we’re a far way from either sheriff department,” Schneider said.

The department's 2015-16 fiscal year budge is $165,577. The department employs seven part-time officers and one full-time officer.

Contact Beth LeBlanc at (810) 989-6259 or eleblanc@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @THBethLeBlanc.