Town of Kenly to investigate police resignations. What will happen next?

A week after the Kenly police chief, four police officers, and two town administrators announced their resignations, questions linger about what’s next for the Johnston County town.

The employees’ official last day is Aug. 2. In their resignation letters, they all alleged a hostile work environment since Town Manager Justine Jones was hired June 2.

On Wednesday, Town Attorney Chip Hewett said the Town Council has asked him to oversee “thorough investigations beginning next week to determine the facts and circumstances relating to the resignations and the allegations of a hostile work environment.”

“Citizens should know that the Council is committed to ensuring that services will continue without disruption and that their needs will be met during this time,” Hewett said in a statement sent to The News & Observer.

Last Friday, the six-member council met with Jones behind closed doors, but after nearly two hours, did not reveal what was discussed or what they planned to do.

Mayor Herbert Hales said the council would hold a public meeting this week, but Hewett said Wednesday the council will now convene after the investigations wrap and “act accordingly based on the findings and conclusions.”

Hewett did not say how long the investigation could take.

Hales, Jones and other council members have not responded to requests for comment since Friday.

‘We just want to be safe in Kenly’: Town board mum after meeting on mass resignations

Could Kenly move forward without its own police officers?

The Johnston County Sheriff’s Office has stepped in to provide law enforcement protection for the small town of just about 2,000 residents.

Without an active police department, protection automatically defaults to the county sheriff, according to Jeff Wently, a professor at the UNC School of Government in Chapel Hill.

Welty said if the town of Kenly decides to, they could operate this way forever.

“There’s no requirement in North Carolina that a city have a police department,” Welty said in a phone interview. “Most cities do, but they don’t have to. We have some very, very small municipalities in North Carolina. ... Some of them are small enough that it just doesn’t make sense for them to have a police department.”

The county sheriff’s office has county-wide jurisdiction to enforce the criminal laws. If a town has its own police department, the sheriff’s deputies stay out of the town’s limits, Welty said.

“So that’s the starting point, they could just get rid of their police department and that would be fine,” he said. “But if they want to keep the police department, then they need to find somebody to be the chief and that’s important administratively but also important legally.”

There are a number of duties the head of a police department is responsible for, including ensuring all the officers keep up with mandatory training and reporting certain events to the state criminal justice education and training standards commission, Welty said.

If an officer violates some administrative rules, the agency head is required to also report that.

“I think for Kenly, the next move is to a) do they want to keep a police department, and b) if they do, then who’s going to be their agency head?” Welty said.

There are about 600 municipalities in the state and only a few that don’t have police departments and default to their county sheriff, Welty said.

Small town, national headlines

About 50 people stood outside of Town Hall in Kenly on the night of July 22, waiting for answers from the council members.

Since last week, the news of the entire department’s resignation reached national headlines, including Essence Magazine, The Hill and Fox News. The news also reached online blogs, Twitter and Facebook.

The resignations in Kenly echo a national issue of law enforcement challenges. In 2020, the town of Asheville lost one-third of its officers due to retirement or resignation, as first reported by the Asheville Citizen Times.

A year later in Mocksville, the Town Council voted to disband the entire police department, eliminating about 20 jobs.

Nationally, police resignations were up about 15% during 2020-21, according to a June 2021 survey released by the Police Executive Research Forum. The retirement rate of officers was up nearly 45%.

Many residents in Kenly say they want to see a peaceful process between the Town Council, town manager and resigning police officers.

Others say the vacancies create an opportunity for Kenly to hire new and diverse officers.