News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Baxter Alderman Willie Allison would like the city to explore having two police officers on overnight shifts instead of one.
Allison said it is a concern to him as someone with law enforcement experience, as a Baxter resident, and as a board of aldermen member. He said if surrounding cities and towns can have multiple officers on an overnight shift Baxter should look at how it can achieve that as well.
“It’s only going to take one time for when our officers stop somebody that’s out of city, out of county, out of state, and they’re aggressive, that one of our guys is going to have to take them on solo,” Allison said. “I’ve been there, I know. It’s not a good feeling when you have nobody coming to you. ”
Allison said Police Chief Danny Holmes has done a great job getting the police department to where it is. Now, he said it is up to the board of aldermen to find the funds that will help this situation.
Allison said he believes the safety of the people of Baxter is worth looking at increasing its investment into emergency responders. He said with the town growing there are more people to protect.
“It’s not like 20-30 years ago, people back then used to fight with fists and now they pull a gun,” Allison said. “So you never know what might happen. So like I said we need to protect our citizens, protect our police officers. We need to have two so one can back up the other.”
Allison said it is so important to him, that he will likely bring up the subject at each meeting until the Board can find a solution.
