Resaca Police Department could shut down: Sheriff's Department would take over coverage area

Despite bringing in money through fines, Resacas Police Department could be shuttered if contract negotiations with the Gordon County Sheriffs Office work out.

[An informed citizen]

Its all well and good that the mayor is looking out for his voters but I don't understand some of his tactics. If Sammy knew that he was planning to shut down the police dept. why would he hire two deputies away from the Murray County Sheriffs Office where they had spent several years and jeopardize their retirement? If he knew the dept. was having financial difficulty why did he not inform the officer's of this sooner. They could have been looking elsewhere for employment or making plans for the coming rainyday when they are standing in the bread line.

[Bewildered]

Sammy is nuts if he believes that he will still have a municiple court. If he contracts deputies to cover the town its not likely that they will generate any fine revenue. You can listen to the police scanners and easily enough see that deputies don't like stopping cars. The only radio traffic from deputies are when they are actually dispatched to a call. The Resaca Police fill the rest of the air time with pro-active traffic stops. All Sammy will be getting for his money is a deputy sitting in a police car collecting money waiting for his shift to end. GSP might as well brace for it as well. If an accident occurs they will have to handle it, because it is a well known fact that deputies will not work wrecks.

[Hal]

I am glad Sammy is comming to his senses, Gordon county Sheriff Dept can handle the job. Resaca is not full of crack heads or rapists or murders,just less than 200 people just trying to live. This has tarnished Resaca name for good some heads should roll.

[Betrty]

Way to go Gordon County Sheriff Dept.

[Steve]

I think gordon County can handle the job. Way to go Mitch.

[Charles]

I stop buying anything from Resaca because of the Police Dept, I am glad that Gordon County is try to take over the police seccurity of Resaca.

[Jessie]

Maybe their is hope for Sammy Allen.

[Willie]

It is about time some is doing something about those RENT A COPS in Resaca This should never had been in the first place.

[David]

Dismantling Resaca Police Dpt Is the best news I have heard since the Vietnam war ended.

[Tom]

It will take years for Resaca to get it people to trust the councils members again.

[Tammy]

The name Resaca has aquired By the action the Police dept will take years to forget.

[Tommy]

What goes around comes around.

[Jill]

Resaca is small town and it does not need hundreds of thousand of dollar that the police has generated. Their is too many people getting money now from the taxes that this small town gets anyway. I have lived in Resaca for forty years and only thing I can see rom all the revenue generated is a
termit infested building and a old school houelunch room. I am sorry to say that I'am asshamed to say I from Resaca Ga.

[Bobby]

Georgia needs to pass a law like Tenn has, it stops small town from grabbing money from the use of police to set up speed traps and patroling Innerstate Highways. The town has to be a certain size to operate and only within their city limits.This stops small town from draning the funds that the bigger city needs to operate with out financial burdens of tax paying citizens.

[Shirl]

This issue should have been open to a public forum, not handled by the Mayor alone. Most of the city council did not know anything until after the fact.
Seems to me that to many things are done under the table and announced by the Mayor to city council and the public.

[Tina]

I agree with Shirl. I don't see why Resaca even has a town council when sammy seems to make so many decisions ahead of time without counsulting other council members.

As a reply to Bobby, following Tennessee's example would be great if the larger police/sheriff depts would actually take the initiative to work the interstates as well as the Resaca drug task force has been doing. If you take the amount of stuff Resaca has pulled off their puny 3 miles of interstate, just think how much is getting missed that other larger law enforcement agencies, like Gordon County, should be out there catching.

[Informed Citizen]

Anyone can look at the finances of the city under the Open Records Act, so I did. It turns out on a bad month the city has to kick in 3,000 to 5,000 a month to the police dept. from the LOST (Local Option Sales Tax) money. Thats what the LOST money is for anyway. The other months the police dept is self funded through the municple court. Another way of putting it is the people who disrespect our town by speeding through it, pay for the police. If the city contracts the Sheriff's dept to hire a deputy at 12 dollars an hour it will cost 288 dollars a day. Multiply thatg by 30 and the city is paying about $8,640 a month out of the LOST fund. By the time Sammy realizes he made a mistake he will have already given all of the city's assets to Mitch at the Sheriff's dept.

[Proud of our city]

Sounds like a great deal for Mitch Ralston. Hmmmm. Lets see, he gets the city's cars and money. He also gets the city to pay the wages of another deputy. Sounds like a win/win situation for him. You know that if anything happens out in the county and its close to our town they will send the deputy we are paying to handle it. So we end up paying for a deputy to sit around and wait for calls and half of them will be in the county. Way to go Mitch!!! It didn't take you long to become schrewed at politics.

[Kelly]

You people are so crazy if you think that the Resaca police dept does nothing but speed traps! You just don't know how much drugs they have taken of the streets in Resaca and drugs that are being trafficed through gordon county!!!! And to mister HAL from Dalton if you lived here you would know that this area is FULL of nasty crackheads!!!!!! And as far as the speed traps! You can only get pulled over if you are SPEEDING! Resaca is very crowded in the mornings and afternoons you do not need to speed through there! I think that the Resaca cops are wonderful! They have worked very hard trying to clean up this area and this is the thanks they get! KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK GUYS (AND GIRL)! Look at how many bust "gordon county cops" have made..not many besides the ones that just fall on to them...I mean atleast resaca is trying! It is pretty bad when you can't go into Wal-Mart and buy powder baby formula on the shelf b/c all the crackheads here are making meth with it! So I think we need to praise the ICE team in Resaca for trying!!!!!!!!!! Don't let them get rid of them!

Thank you very much!!!!!!!!!

[jkb]

Im glad to see so many of you pricks are celebrating the fact that these officers are out of a job,.I know a couple of them personally and I think it's a shitty deal the way they hired them knowing full well what was going to happen.And for all you happy folks,be carefull going to and from work I sure hope you don't get hit by a speeder or drunk, better yet maybe you'll lose your job and wont have to worry about it.