SOMERVILLE POLICE CHIEF RETIRING; THREE OFFICERS, ONE RESERVE RESIGN
Somerville Police Chief Craig Wise has announced his retirement.
On July 17th, Wise gave a letter to City Administrator Danny Segundo announcing his retirement effective Friday, July 31st. Wise’s retirement comes after several weeks of controversy which included calls for his resignation by Mayor Michael Bradford and members of the public.
According to Segundo, three police officers have also resigned, with their last day coming on Friday. One reserve officer resigned earlier this month, effective July 18th. This leaves the city with two police officers.
Wise, according to Segundo, had served as police chief since November of 2018, after retiring as a sergeant from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.
Update @ 3:15 p.m.: In Wise’s letter to Segundo, he said after “careful thought and long discussions” with his wife, he decided he wanted to leave the “stress and worry” of law enforcement.
Calls for Wise’s resignation began in early June, after the city rejected the rehiring of former Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy Chauna Sheffield. Sheffield, formerly known as Chauna Thompson, was indicted on a murder charge in the death of John Hernandez at a Houston-area Denny’s restaurant in 2017. Off-duty at the time, she was seen on video helping restrain Hernandez while her husband at the time, Terry Thompson, put him into a choke-hold. Hernandez died after the incident, and Sheffield was fired from her job, but the charges against her were later dropped.
Calls for action intensified after members of the public condemned the police department’s handling of a police brutality protest on June 13th, in which several armed men arrived. Protestors from the event claim that police did not intervene or check on them when the armed group walked directly through them.
The city has already begun its search for a new police chief, with Segundo saying the Burleson County Sheriff’s Office will be asked to help with law enforcement until the police department hires more officers. On Monday, Burleson County Commissioners approved having the Sheriff’s Office fill Somerville ISD’s School Resource Officer position.
It was good Officers who left, as they were picked up by departments who saw an opportunity to poach the better ones for better pay. The Chief, Sgt, and both field training officers. They were all without one racial profiling complaint or use of force incident between them, and all but one college educated. I don’t know the two that stayed, but God speed to them.
And best of luck to Somerville. They’re not going to get more qualified candidates until they get the mayor out and raise the pay. Having the Sheriffs department step in makes sense on paper, until you realize they’re also critically understaffed and serve the whole county, not allowed to make regular traffic stops that bring in money, and their response time can be anywhere between 15 to 45 minutes, even in emergencies. (Because of the distance and man power issues) Compare that to Somerville PDs response time of 2 to 3 minutes on average.
The city council and the Mayor really hurt the citizens on this one. Mostly the Mayor.
Cancel culture and mob rule wins , common sense loses out.
Unless the police get the full backing of the communities they serve, resignations will continue across the nation. The criminals are winning folks.
Good news for the city of Somerville. May their future law enforcement be the right fit for their city. Good luck. Thank for a great mayor.