MVPD short on manpower, not presence, city administrator says

The city of Mt. Vernon is facing a shortage of police officers as multiple resignations have been submitted to the city over a short span of time.

City administrator Rob Harrington said that resignations have no correlation but instead are a result of officers aging out of their positions.

The city has lost multiple leadership positions to resignations, namely Chief of Police Dave Hubert, Assistant Chief of Police Ed Evatt and Sergeant Tannya Benitez. Hubert and Benitez are still technically on the staff, with the former still acting chief of police.

Some, like Hubert and Benitez are retiring from law enforcement entirely while Evatt has already taken up a new position as a school resource officer for Springfield Public Schools.

“I’m moving on to something that I'm really passionate about,” said Evatt.

This leaves few officers at the department, five currently active by Harrington’s count. This small force has no bearing on the safety they provide to the city, however, as local law enforcement agencies such as the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office have been helping to fill the gaps.

“When one of our officers is on a call or is unable to be on call due to whatever the job requires of them, the sheriff’s office is covering,” said Harrington. ”So, I don’t believe there are any safety concerns… there is constant law enforcement presence in the city of Mt. Vernon.

That doesn’t mean there are many gaps, though, according to Harrington. The city still has an officer on duty at all times, day or night.

Officers will soon be working 12-hour shifts at the department to keep up while short-staffed. One would assume this would be hard on local officers, but the newly implemented schedule, known as the Pittman Schedule, allows officers to work two days on and two days off, then three on and two off, culminating in two on and three days off by the second week. It has been viewed favorably by officers, said Harrington, and discussions around continuing the schedule once the department is once again up to full strength are currently being held internally.

Being low on manpower still takes a toll, however, said Harrington, and it can be hard to compete with larger agencies for quality officers.

The city is currently looking to fill their officer positions and try to once again reach their full staff of 11 total. That number has not been reached since before Harrington’s time as city administrator, but that’s something he’s trying to change by assessing benefits, pay, and other areas that may be of interest to potential employees.

"[We are] making sure that our department is the best trained, the best equipped, they have the best benefits, hours and pay," said Harrington. “We’ve made a lot of changes.”

Some of these upgrades to the police department have already taken place, while the remainder of them will be implemented in 2027 in the new budget year.

The department has already begun looking for a new chief of police and will begin interviewing candidates in September, with the stated goal of hiring a candidate before the end of that month if possible. The selected candidate will then appoint or hire a new assistant chief of police.

Harrington is hopeful that the department will be fully staffed by the end of the year, though no guarantee can be made on the timeline. Until then, Mt. Vernon will continue to make do with what they have, but there should not be a noticeable lack of police vigilance and service, he said.

“We still have police officers on shift 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.”