More than three months later and the search continues for a new chief to take the helm of the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department.
Former Chief Ben Seastrom resigned in December last year after accepting a deputy position with the Jennings County Sheriff’s Department.
Since then, the department has had an interim chief, Mick Reddick, while they accept and review applications.
So far, only three individuals have applied.
Over the last several weeks, multiple meetings have been held to discuss the search for a new police chief, department funding and what it all means for the future of a police force in Nashville.
The Nashville Police Merit Commission and Nashville Town Council held a joint meeting on March 14 to talk about the need for a chief.
At the meeting, Reddick asked the commission and council to determine what they want in a chief, what kind of change they want to see in the town and department and how best to describe Nashville to attract potential applicants to come work here.
Using a white board, the commission and council worked to outline what they want in their next chief and how to best advertise that role.
A chief with “reliability, confidence, integrity, dedication and skill” who is “progressive, organized, honest, intelligent, detail-oriented and community conscious” took priority.
Advertising Nashville as a “creative and unique” community with good schools and lots of outdoor and other recreational options was decided to better attract potential chiefs to apply. These notes will be submitted to a freelance service agency, Fiverr, that will draft a new job advertisement.
The original posting had been advertised for a week on the town’s website and with the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy. The advertised salary for the position is $45,000 to $60,000, determined upon qualifications and experience.
For a comparison, the base salary for a deputy at the Brown County Sheriff’s Department in 2021 was $43,173. Last year the Brown County Council approved raises for all deputies, with starting pay increasing to $52,784.
In the meeting on March 14, NPD Merit Commission member Jim Hays said that money is the “largest obstacle” in hiring a chief and officers at the department because surrounding areas offer more to start out.
Before raises were approved last year, Sheriff Scott Southerland said that his department made a minimum investment of $65,000 into training new county deputies only to have them leave for a better paying job with a department in a nearby county.
Outside of the search for a new chief, the town police department also continues to struggle to find full-time officers to work here.
The town’s salary ordinance allows the hiring of six full-time police officers and one chief. Currently, there are four full-time officers working 12-hour shifts, Reddick said. Only two of those officers are qualified to work the road by themselves, he said.
He said that they had “maxed out” overtime trying to cover all shifts and the usefulness of officers is going down because they are getting tired.
“We’re really stretching ourselves trying to figure out how to (cover) this,” he said.
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Current funding
The funding of the NPD was discussed at the first town council town hall discussion meeting of the year on March 3.
The general topic was public safety, with many members of the Brown County (Nashville) Fire Department and local officers in attendance.
The purpose of the discussion meeting was to not only share information, but to receive feedback about what the community thinks of public safety in Nashville. The majority of the two-and-a-half hour meeting was spent discussing how the police department is funded and how more money could potentially be brought in to support the department.
The town’s municipal advisor Dax Norton said it was the best turnout for a town hall meeting he’d seen in his career.
He posed a question to the group attendees: How much should NPD officers make annually? Answers ranged from $55,000 a year to enough “to live comfortably” with no exact amount mentioned.
Norton explained the town’s revenue in a visual analogy using buckets, all labeled differently, like motor vehicle highway, food and beverage tax, economic development income tax and more.
The town’s total 2022 projected annual revenue is $1,552,000. Of that revenue, $848,200 goes into the general fund. About 55 percent of the general fund — or $512,000 — funds the police department.
Crocker said the national average that communities pay their local police departments is about 30% of their general funds.
The department’s staffing issue is largely attributed to officers being underpaid.
NPD Merit Commission Vice President Ken Wendling said that the department is also a training ground for a lot of officers.
“We hire them, send them to a police academy and pay for that,” he said. “They come back and start looking for a better job because of what they’re getting paid here.”
Wendling said officers can “easily” make $10,000 more at another department outside of Nashville.
“There’s no incentive for them to stay,” Wendling said.
NPD Sgt. Heather Burris said at the March 3 meeting that two officers who had recently left the department found jobs in law enforcement elsewhere making up to $20,000 more.
Reddick said what the town is paying officers about $12,000 less than the lowest paid departments in the state, which are often only made up of three officers.
“Until they pay officers better to give better incentive, what’s the incentive for an officer to come (to Nashville)?” Reddick asked.
Crocker said even with more than half of the town’s general fund revenue going to the department officers still are not paid what they deserve, resulting in them leaving.
“We don’t want to lose our police department, we value our police department. But with the money you just saw, we can’t keep spinning our wheels like we’ve been. We just can’t keep training (officers) and having them leave,” she said.
The police department was the most heavily discussed topic at the meeting, but it was not the only topic regarding public safety.
Discussions also centered on drug prevention and the volunteer fire department.
Norton said at the meeting that the BCVFD would need its own meeting for discussion. The fire department currently receives no money from the town and has a budget of $20,000 that they receive from the town. This covers liability insurance and some fuel, said Brown County (Nashville) Volunteer Fire Department Chief Nick Kelp. The department is staffed by volunteers.
The future
Attendees at the discussion meeting also shared ideas about how to bring in more revenue or support for the department.
A benefit package was suggested by local business owner Michele Wedel. She said putting together a package for officers with housing help or other initiatives would help them want to come and serve in Nashville.
Wedel also said that with Brown County being driven by tourism, perhaps the town should monetize tourists in other ways.
“We’ll never win if we try to take it from our population,” Wedel said. “We need to understand how much of our public safety expenses are driven by tourism then come up with a story and look at ways we can get that information out.”
Kelp said that the town should also look at finding ways to lower the cost of benefits for officers, like by providing more affordable health insurance.
With more than 1.4 million visitors annually, Norton suggested contacting state officials and requesting a $1 or $2 increase to the Brown County State Park gate fee. The money collected from that increase could then go to fund local public safety.
Norton also suggested establishing a STIF, or Sales Tax Increment Financing district, in town limits.
Currently visitors to Nashville and Brown County come in and spend money with a portion of tax money going to the state government.
With a STIF, the town could “draw a circle” around the retail sector of the Village District and ask the state for a portion, or all, of that sales tax to stay in the town, Norton said.
Norton said that if nothing is done to bring in more funds, he’d consider the town to be “in crisis.”
On March 17, Norton sent an email to remind town officials of local revenue issues and solutions. Norton said the only way to raise revenue is by appealing to the state to raise the growth property tax levy, which Nashville is likely not eligible for due to a lack of growth in population. The other option is raising the county’s local income tax (LIT) to its maximum amount, which the town also receives a portion of. The current Brown County comprehensive LIT is 2.52 percent.
“The town is fiscally sound with the resources they have (at this time), there are reserves,” he said. “Can Nashville become the type of community that doesn’t have to rely on federal grant money?”
Crocker said that hopefully a result of the discussion meetings is a sort of strategic plan that will give the town direction in the area of public safety and other topic that will be discussed.
“What do you want to be in 10 years, 15 years or 20 years? What do you want Nashville to be?” she asked.
The next town hall discussion meeting will be April 7 at 6:30 at Town Hall. The topic for that meeting has not yet been announced.
