Fremont citizens petition to remove Rawlings

27 September 2007 — Two months after Fremont Police Chief Ronald Rawlings faced accusations at a town board meeting of unfair treatment of citizens, another group of citizens has submitted a petition to have Chief Rawlings removed from office, citing unprofessional behavior.

Bonnie Bass, a retired Marine Corps major, said for him the whole thing started with a complaint he heard from his wife. He said that his wife Faye was going to work on a Saturday morning when her usual route was blocked for the Norwayne Alumni Parade. Chief Rawlings stopped her, which Mr. Bass agrees was legal.

However, he said that his wife was very upset with the Chief’s behavior towards her. She said he yelled at her repeatedly and got in her face. When she came home that evening, Mr. Bass said his wife was still shaken up, so they agreed to talk to the town board and town manager about the situation.

“I didn’t think at that point it was worth making a big deal about, so we just decided to talk to the town about it,” he said.

But over the next few days, Mr. Bass said he asked around among other people of the town to get a better grip on what they had to say about the chief. And what he heard, he said, changed his mind about making a big deal about it.

“I would ask people on an upbeat note about what they thought of the new chief, and it seemed like everyone had a story to tell,” he said.

Mr. Bass said the claims ranged from rude and unprofessional behavior to several complaints of pressuring landlords to evict their tenants.

One woman, he said, told him that her two-year old had repeatedly been strip searched for drugs while she was walking around town with the stroller. He said the woman complained of constant harassment by the police, including driving by her house every hour and turning around in her driveway.

Another person told Mr. Bass that the police department had put pressure on him to evict one of his tenants because they were suspected of dealing drugs. He said that the department threatened to disconnect utilities to the home if he didn’t comply.

So Mr. Bass began circling a petition to have Chief Rawlings removed from office.

The petition request removal on the grounds that “when dealing with Chief Rawlings, he has been rude, obscene, intimidating and mean-spirited, coupled with an outward obsession with authority.” In six days, Mr. Bass said, he and several others collected over 100 signatures. A copy of the petition was then submitted to Town Administrator Kerry McDuffie.

Mr. McDuffie said that the town council was made aware of the petition. However, both he and the board support Chief Rawlings and the work he’s doing with the department.

“Anytime somebody comes in and they’re doing there job, some people aren’t going to like it,” he said. “Chief Rawlings is doing a great job, and the department is effective and efficient. You are always going to have some people who disagree.”

Chief Rawlings finished his six month in the position this past month, and the town board voted unanimously to end his probationary period this month.

When asked about the petition, Chief Rawlings said that he always makes every effort to be professional and polite with citizens of the town, but there are sometime incidences that require a certain level of aggressiveness.

“You have to understand that you have to be assertive sometimes,” he said. “When you are dealing with drug dealers, you have to be aggressive. When I stop them, I am in charge and they need to know that. I don’t just talk to anybody any kind of way.”

He added that of the signatures he has seen on the petition, many signees are not citizens of Fremont, and others have a history of conflict with the department. He said he knows of 24 people who signed the petition that he has arrested in the six months he has been chief.

“If those are the people that want me out of town, I’m doing my job,” he said.

And with regard to the traffic stop of Mrs. Bass, he explained that you have to be aggressive in situations like that.

“She drove past a barricade while the parade was going on,” he said. “If I had let her go and she had hit one of those children, we’d be in another situation.”

Chief Rawlings also emphasized that he has not evicted anyone during his time as chief, nor does he have the power to do so. He has been using the town’s disorderly house ordinance, which allows fines for “disorderly homes” in the city limits. But even then, he said, he has not issued citations. He has simply been warning landlords of problems in the homes that they own concerning known drug dealers.

He added that the town has also recently clarified the definition of a disorderly house so that citations cannot be issued for just anything.

“I simply talked with the landlords telling them that we were having problems with people selling drugs out of their houses,” he said.

Mr. Bass said he knows that the town of Fremont has a drug problem, and he is all for someone trying to eliminate the problem. But he said he does not approve of Chief Rawling’s methods.

“He’d be what we need if he’d be professional,” he said.

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