Brown Countians are looking for answers after Nashville Police Chief Heather Burris was demoted at a town council meeting a week ago Monday and was replaced by Interim Chief Scott Bowling.

Some members of the community like former postmaster and town council member Bruce Gould agree with the council’s decision to demote Burris.

“The biggest part of my platform when I was running for town council was the police department, what Andi Wilson said during her statement that 60 percent of the town budget goes to the police department is correct,” said Gould. “That needs to be addressed and part of that expense is what was going on with the chief of police too, especially with her driving a car back and forth to New Palestine everyday, a town police car. I guess I would just say that the town needs to take a lot of action now dealing with the police department and get back to where budget wise it’s not such a huge part of the Nashville budget. They need to provide the service too, one of the things that was commented on was that there wasn’t police service for like three days of the week and I don’t know how long that was going on but I think it’s been going on for a lot time. I said that in my comments when I was running for town council that the Nashville Police Department is not providing the service that the town thinks it’s getting anyhow, a lot of that service is provided by the Sheriff’s Department. I would say now would be the time to combine the Nashville Police Department with the Sheriff’s Department, they need to take a strong look at that and there’s no reason that cannot be done.”

While the debate between one department or two has been discussed for years, Brown County Sheriff Brad Stogsdill said that he will do what is best to work with Bowling during this transition to help the Nashville Police Department’s situation.

Other members of the community including former town council member Anna Hofstetter who stepped down from her position in March praise Heather’s experience as police chief.

“During my time on council, I think Heather did a great job,” Hofstetter said. “She was always available and willing to listen and receive criticism well. That was my experience with her, however these seem like really big problems. I would be curious to hear her explanation. I think the council in general knows what they’re doing. I’m really sorry to hear they’re having problems. This letter and these issues make sense, but I would be really curious to hear Heather’s explanation because my experience has always been really good with her.”