By Brian Livingston / blivingston@themeridianstar.com
The Meridian Star
MERIDIAN —
Meridian Police Department Chief Lee Shelbourn said Friday he has revised his decision to move three MPD officers from the East Mississippi Drug Task Force.
Shelbourn said early Friday afternoon that after the initial announcement of the moves, which involve task force agents Karl Merchant, Al Brown and Chris Scott, it became apparent to him the moves weren't going to be feasible at this time due to overall departmental manpower shortages.
"I realized we had almost a dozen officers currently who are new to force and who need more time to get acclimated to the city and our procedures," said Shelbourn.
Shelbourn said Brown and Scott will remain with the task force indefinitely while Merchant will go ahead and move over to the department's Criminal Investigation Division. He said as soon as the newer officers begin to patrol on their own, he can then start to move Brown and Scott over from the task force. Shelbourn said he will then be able to move officers wanting to work the task force out of patrol or investigations. He had no timetable as to when the task force positions would be available to other officers.
"Now is not a good time to be moving several people around at one time," Shelbourn said. "The patrol division is the backbone of any department and I have to make sure we have the trained officers on the streets to meet the needs of the residency."
Shelbourn again stressed these moves by the current task force officers have nothing do to with their work ethic or any disciplinary actions. He said it was a matter of getting new blood into a highly stressful position of working in the East Mississippi Drug Task Force.
"I'm still convinced they will get a breath of fresh air working elsewhere in the department," Shelbourn said.
Shelbourn said all areas of the department are under a constant state of evaluation in an effort to put the best people in the best position.
Shelbourn said there will be an application process to find three replacements to fill out the responsibilities at the task force. He did not know when those applications would be available.
