“My mission hasn’t changed”, Columbus Mayor responds to city council, FOP conversation
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Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson and City Manager Isaiah Hugley are still facing backlash from the community after a city council meeting turned into an argument between council members and the FOP President Ralph Dowe.
Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson released a one minute, thirty second video about his response to the statistics given by Dowe last Tuesday at the city council meeting.
Henderson began with the first part of the station saying, “Freddie Blackmon is the chief of police in Columbus, Georgia… the Chief understands that he just like every other department head and every other individual that works in the Consolidated Government does not have a job for life… We have to continue to evolve and continue to grow in leadership so we can continue to create an environment in the workspace that is going to be welcoming to our employees.”
In 2021, the police department lost 95 officers – 87 resigned and 8 retired – and according to calculations that’s nearly two per week, with the resignation rate being 112%. In the first 7 weeks of the new year, the department has lost 16 officers and 3 pending resignations, as of last Tuesday.
Henderson added his second thought to the video, which talked about his mission. “My mission hasn’t changed since I got here. That is… to unite, not only the Police Department, but this entire community,” he added.
A Fraternal Order of Police meeting is scheduled for tonight at 6PM.
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