Vincent Police Department

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The Vincent Police Department was a municipal law enforcement agency which served the City of Vincent. It was headquartered in the Wayn Lamar Butler Building at 25 Florey Street, adjacent to Vincent Town Hall. In 2021 and 2022 the department had three sworn officers, including a chief and assistant chief.

In late July 2022 a social media posting included a screen shot of a racist joke made by a Vincent police officer via text. Chief James Srygley told AL.com that the department "conducted an internal investigation" and took "appropriate disciplinary action".

Mayor James Latimore suspended chief Srygley and assistant chief John Goss over the incident, but due to the city's personnel policies, did not have enough cause to terminate them. At the next meeting of the Vincent City Council, the group passed a resolution of intent to terminate the officers by disbanding the department, giving the Shelby County Sheriff's Office responsibility for law enforcement and criminal investigations in the city.

Council member Corey Abrams added the word "temporarily" to the resolution, alluding to an intent to reconstitute the department with different personnel policies in the future.

Police chiefs

References

  • Johnson, Roy S. (August 2, 2022) "‘Appropriate disciplinary action’ taken against Vincent police officer who texted racist joke." The Birmingham News
  • Johnson, Roy S. (August 4, 2022) "After racist text, Vincent council moves to fire police chief, disband department." The Birmingham News
  • Pillion, Dennis (August 18, 2022) "This Alabama city couldn’t fire cops who sent racist texts, so it disbanded the entire department." The Birmingham News