By Brett Gillin
Wellston, Missouri no longer has a police department to call their own. The city of 2,300 watched as all 23 of their police officers were forced to turn in their badges earlier this week, after their police department was disbanded, thanks to a city council vote. While the move caught quite a few residents by surprise, those that were plugged into the tensions between the city council and the police department may have seen the writing on the wall.
As LEO Affairs reported earlier this year, tensions between a certain city councilwoman and the police department had been heating up for quite some time. Late in 2013, Wellston police officers raided the home of Terrance Dixon after getting a tip that he was selling crack cocaine and heroin out of the house. Terrance Dixon happens to be the son of city councilwoman Janet Dixon, and according to sources, Councilwoman Dixon did not take kindly to the raid. A short time after the raid, three officers, including the one that captured Dixon on tape confessing to selling drugs out of his house, were fired by the city council.
While the original firings were reversed, when police were called to another incident, this time involving domestic violence, the suspect happened to be Terrence Dixon yet again. The officer was summarily fired, again, after attempting to get to the bottom of the domestic disturbance, most likely due to Councilwoman Dixon’s influence.
Despite the growing friction between the police force and the city council, Wellston police continued to do their jobs to the best of their ability, until Monday. That’s the day they found that the locks to the department had been changed, and that each of the 23 police officers were forced to hand over their guns and badges, according to Fox 2 News.
In an extremely interesting coincidence, according to KMOV.com, Councilwoman Janet Dixon was arrested on Monday morning under suspicion of possessing a defaced firearm. She was released from jail shortly after 3:00 pm on Monday, and happened to vote to disband the police department just four hours later.
The Wellston City Council voted 5-2 in a closed session to completely disband the police department. Instead, they would bring in officers from the neighboring Vinita Park to police their neighborhood. Officially, according to StlToday.com, the move was meant to cut spending in the cash-strapped city.
“With limited resources, I think it is so important for our cities to at least consider collaborating and sharing more resources,” Wellston Mayor Nate Griffin told reporters.
Wellston Police Chief G.T. Walker had a much different take on why the department was disbanded. He claims that it was a direct result of “dirty politics” that the department was disbanded, claiming that Dixon herself led the charge to disband the department after the arrests of her son and herself.
One of the other Councilwomen, Linda Garner, strongly opposed the move to disband the department, telling reporters that she was angry that the vote seemed to be made in extreme haste and without opening discussion with the public.
According to this report in Fox 2, Former Police Chief G.T. Walker was offered a job in the new department, but he declined to take the job, saying he “couldn’t take the job in good conscience” after the other officers were let go.
Each of the officers will be “eligible to apply for jobs” this week in the new department. There is no official word as to how many job openings will be available for new police officers.
Dixon, a walking court martial. Again, who gave the vote for Dixon to have any power what so ever? In regard to her immediate familys alleged infractions…another juris should have been called upon. One that has unbiased approach, of course…..how did such a undeveloped and malaligned community continue at all? An honest question only to be answered so that “never again” and Dixon gets a cease and desist from office thru due process.
It is NOT disbanning…disbanding.
And nice to see this corruption. And that is sarcasm.
One obvious question: Why would a burg of 2300 have 23 officers? It should have about 4.
That’s the only real question. The rest is obvious: Druggie Mama had something on the other Council members and the lot of them need jailed, ASAP.
Do the math. 4 officers could not cover a shift for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days per year.
Um, Scott, why 23….day tours, 4×12 tours, midnights , days off, weekends, etc . More importantly, what are the crime stats for the “burg of 2300” ?
Well, if you take away the crimes of the city council woman and her son, crime stats are probably pretty low.
The bureaucrat menace is second to none..
It should have 4? It takes 9 officers to have two on duty 24/7 not accounting for sick or vacation assuming a five day work week with two consecutive days off per week. So 18 would be four working twenty four hours a day and the balance being a supervisory and investigatory staff. 23 is nowhere what it sounds like. Break it down, it was a small crew to begin with.
You seriously expect just for officers to cope in that hellhole?
four*. Damn.
So you think 1 officer for every 100 residents is too much? What planet are you living on? Police officers are hired based on the need for them which is based on crime statistics. High crime areas need more officers than low crime ones. Maybe if you’re living in Whitebread, Kansas population 2,300 where the worst infraction in the last 5 years was someone spitting on the sidewalk you can get by with 4 police officers, but not in a high crime area.
It could depend on the crime rates. I mean, if a councilwoman’s son (And apparently even her!) are committing criminal acts, that says something for the crime rate.
You are covering 3 shifts per day 7 days a week. Plus you staff to cover thier off days and vacation, now you figure it out
Why? Can’t you?
Bingo and the first visits by the new cops will most likely be because of more trouble caused by Mummy and son.
Four officers can not work 24/7 and man the phone lines/do administrative work. More are needed for shifts.
This isn’t Mayberry.
Let me venture a guess here and say that this city is run by democrats.
You’re in complete denial if you think corruption stops at the aisle, moron.
I’m not sure if you’re trolling — doesn’t really matter — you’re an idiot. How can people be so simple-minded that issues like this can even regress to democrats vs republicans?
You’re the kind of person that makes this country’s politics worthless.
Your an idiot with that dumbass remark…..
Before calling someone else an idiot make sure YOU’RE using the correct word. It is you’re not your
You are a trouble-maker, as if Republicans have a perfect record, just look at the GOP thug list running for President, ugh! People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Example: Dennis Hastert.
Jason. It wouldn’t surprise me one little bit.
In that county the US Congressional Reps were split one Democrat and one Republican in both 2012 and 2014.
No, it’s more like republicans to alter public works to help out illegal business ventures…
You’re probably right.
Another Democrat run town I’d guess. Too many police officers, so I could see cutting some. But this stinks to high heaven.
You had to go there. There’s no reason to blame the tea party or democrats. If there is ANY truth to this story then everyone on that council regardless of party is to blame
In Missouri? Kidding, right?
So where are the Obama and his DOJ when they are really needed?
The drug war is such bullshit. Literally any drug is widely available, and inexpensive. Total failure and waste of time and money. Incarceration is inherently more expensive than treatment, even with a large percentage of people relapsing multiple times. It is completely logical to legalize and focus on treatment. People who do drugs will do them anyway unless they could actually stop the trafficking (which they cannot). so currently the system is based on profiting from the sale of these drugs directly. Literally police departments see drugs as a source of revenue. Completely fucked up.
who cares what party a person follows. corrupt is corrupt. I have personally seen corrupt republicans, corrupt democrats and corrupt tea party members. scum is scum plain and simple.
when this woman’s son was arrested, she should have excused herself from any votes regarding the police department due to conflict of interest. In fact the chief and officers should summarily sue the town and its council members for severance pay, lost wages and retirement. when a corrupt council member gets caught breaking the law, she should not be allowed to vote to oust the dept that evening.
23 officers for a 2,300 population? I have 50 officers for a 59,000 population. That power hungry corrupt biatch needs to meet her fate!
Earlier it says they bought their own guns, why would they have to turn them in, personally paid for, that’s personal property, all this over a crack dealer, for once the police aren’t shooting someone they need to, apparently unarmed citizens are targets while crack dealers get Mommy.
Wow, it’s amazing that the mayor used her influence to punish the officers who embarassed her and her son….I’m sure no police officers have EVER abused their power or punished someone who rubbed them the wrong way. The saddest part of this story is that more cities across the country aren’t following suit and disbanding their police departments.
And before anyone jumps on the “don’t bother calling 911 when you have an emergency”, in all my years I have never once, and never will call the police for help. They only make situations worse and escalate them into full on melees. Call the fire department first, they won’t beat you to death or mock you.
The police are modern redcoats, just unionized Traitors. The American people are fed up with your garbage
I find that those espousing “I pay your salary” the most, are those who pay the least in taxes. Often even paying a net negative (anyone in the bottom 20%) as they load up the credits to get more back than they pay in.
Ms Dixon has now lost her leverage over the police. It seems her son is about to see the inside of the local prison.
GOD BLESS ALL OUR BRAVE LEOS. BLESS THEM ALL
What bullshit. Those officers should sue the city. That perp council women investigated. No wonder this country is in such dire straits.
Wow, this is such blatant corruption it is unbelievable. I am covering this over at Infowars.com and linking back to your story. Great breakdown
Black councilwman, white cop. Why am I not surprised.
ScottLC, that’s what I was thinking until I saw that it was in Missouri. Then it dawned on me: St. Louis. Look it up on the map and you’ll see that it’s smack in the middle of The Lou, and right below Ferguson. 23 officers probably aren’t nearly enough to contain the riffraff spilling over into their streets.
I’d be packing up my family and leaving Wellston, MO, really far, far away in my rearview mirror if I were any of those police officers.
Go to Texas. They take pride in a police force that does its job, and does it well!!
except when they do a vaginal/anal cavity search illegally on the side of the road right lucy? People need to stop being blinded by their shiny badges
Sounds like a huge lawsuiy! We had the same thinghhappen in our smallttown. There are laws about closed sessions. Not good.
I’ve heard over the years of small towns/villages councilmen/persons and/or Mayors telling Police Chiefs that certain persons will not be ticketed/arrested. There were varying circumstances that had different results. I have never heard of a city/village disband an entire police force. As had been mentioned, a force of 23 officers is high for a town of 2300 people, unless some of the officers were part-time, volunteer,
per diem. Quite often villages pass/enact a lot of laws and use their police force as “revenue enhancement”.
So, who they gonna call for help? The local crack heads?
No, the police officers of Wellston did not turn in their guns.
Why? Because the town of Wellston did not provide guns. The officers had to supply their own guns, their own ammunition, even their own uniforms. All for $12 an hour.
http://archive.ksdk.com/news/article/387710/70/Wellston-police-forced-to-buy-their-own-guns-and-bullets-
Coincidence? Maybe. But one council mee does not make 5 votes to 2. The story is slanted toward the police. They will still have law enforcement. It’ll come from the county or another city- contracted. Then she will have no Power over those officers.
The only good thing is these cops might fined a state or federal job where they will be appreciated. That town was a dead end that they didn’t deserve. Best of luck to them
This council woman needs to be removed, PERMANENTLY, along with her drug dealing, scumbag son. As for the comment about the number of police this town should have, suggesting 4 tells me your have ZERO clue about law enforcement.
^ Of course, I say this because I am retarded.
If you look at the long, heavily controlled democratically run cities on the east coast it’s no wonder there’s a police force that is about twice as big as it should be. Why? Good question, but I’m guessing it’s because libs like big government… until that government is arresting the politicians for breaking the law.
The rate of officers per 10,000 people
Washington DC-65.6
Newark- 46.7
Baltimore- 46.3
St Louis- 38.4
When you work the math down to equal the population of Wellston, the police force is double that of some of the worst liberal run cities on the east coast. Corruption? Yeah, I’d say.
How can an entity like the city council, entrusted with the treasure of the city of Wellston, meet privately to disband the police department with zero input from the citizens? Every council member that voted to disband the PD should be relieved of their command.
One group of jackbooted thugs disarmed before they kill again? Where’s the downside?
There are way too many cops in this country.
Wanna talk about dirty politics? I was all sympathetic about the REAL reasons behind the closing of the Police Department in this story, until that last line about “Obama’s America…” which was uncalled for and racist as fuck. Please tell me how any of this is the fault of the POTUS. This periodical LEO Affairs, speaks behalf the Law Enforcement Community: and as such it’s writers and editors are representative of the culture of “White male Supremacy” that still exist in public safety nation wide. Shame on you LEO Affairs for taking a tragic story of local corruption, and turning it into a platform to propagate your bigoted sour grapes of the black (1/2 white BTW) president/leader of the “free world”; whatever that is…
It is likely true that the city’s charter requires its government to maintain public safety services and to support and defend the Missouri Constitution and follow Missouri Laws. Missouri’s Governor/Legislature should revoke the city’s charter and reassign the area’s governance to the appropriate county jurisdiction, or the State should govern it directly on a temporary basis. It might also be within the authority of the State courts to bring an injunction on the city for any violation of the terms of its charter. Action by the State of Missouri would be the preferable course of action. In effect, the lawlessness of the Wellston City Council has rendered it a Criminal Junta, something that may be expected in Banana Republics, but not in the United States.
In big Democrat run cities and their smaller parasite class towns are put to ruin in repetitive stupidity and corruption. That includes unions, welfaristas, criminals, and addicts AS well as their unsupervised and unregulated City Councils, which is the case here…
*Democrat leadership.*
*Detroit**, MI**, (1st on the poverty rate list) hasn’t elected Republican mayor since 1961, ** *
*Buffalo**, NY** (2nd) hasn’t elected one since 1954;** *
* Cincinnati **, OH** (3rd)… since 1984;** *
* Cleveland **, OH** (4th)… since 1989;*
* Miami **, FL** (5th) has never had a Republican Mayor;*
* St. Louis **, MO** (6th)…. since 1949;*
* El Paso **, TX** (7th) has never had a Republican Mayor;** *
* Milwaukee **, WI** (8th)… since 1908;** *
* Philadelphia **, PA** (9th)… since 1952;** *
* Newark **, NJ**(10th)… since 1907.** *
Einstein once said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” *
*It is the disadvantaged and uninformed who habitually elect Democrats – yet remain disadvantaged.” *
And its corrupted officials who feel entitled who run roughshod over them.