By Joanna Putman
Police1
FAIR GROVE, Mo. — A Missouri police department has been left with a single full-time officer after resignations for the second time in a five-year span, the Springfield News-Leader reported.
The Fair Grove Police Department now has only one fully trained officer and two officers still in field training following resignations from two other officers and the police chief, according to the report.
Fair Grove Mayor Steve Short told the News-Leader that Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott will be the acting police chief during the vacancy, as he was 3.5 years ago when resignations left the department with no chief.
“We were a little more prepared this time for a cut in our police force,” Short said. The mayor told the News-Leader that 911 calls are already taken by the sheriff’s office.
Three chiefs have joined and left the department since 2020, according to the report. Sources who wished to remain anonymous told the News-Leader that the “common denominator” in the departures was an aggressive attitude toward the police department and chiefs by a few members of the Board of Aldermen.
“Any time you have somebody resign you know, it’s always a concern,” Short said. “There’s a high, high demand for police officers and the market is very tight.”
Sheriff Arnott told the News-Leader that Fair Grove remains competitive in its pay and hopes to attract officers through pay incentives.
“It wasn’t a pay issue then, it’s not a pay issue now,” one former officer told the News-Leader. “It’s a Board of Aldermen issue.”