The entire North Carolina police department in Kenly has resigned from the force. The culprit appears to be a newly appointed “progressively responsible” town manager who has been accused of creating a “hostile work environment.”
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Josh Gibson, the Kenly Police Chief, revealed the shocking news in one of his Facebook posts. He said that a key clerk and the assistant town manager followed the same rule and resigned, in addition to him and his five policemen. “I have put in my 2 weeks notice along with the whole police dept.,” he explained. The man served with the force for over two decades.
He said of Justine Jones, who has recently taken up the position: “The new manager has created an environment I do not feel we can perform our duties and services to the community.”
He informed Jones directly of his resignation to make it official. He noted that he was “the longest running chief” in the town and explained that his department has made “substantial progress” in dealing with recent “ups and downs.”
“However, due to the hostile work environment in the Town of Kenly, I do not believe progress is possible,” he told Jones. However, he chose not to reveal the source of the problem. He explained that part in a social media post. Both his letter and the post failed to specify the precise complaints the police had against Jones. The exiting police chief, though, noted that he might consider staying if Jones got fired.
The town has scheduled an emergency meeting.
Jones refused to make any comments, saying that she was “not at liberty to talk because of a personnel matter.” Jones took office on June 2. She is praised for having “worked in progressively responsible positions” in a number of states in one of the statements. However, the praising statement left out the fact that Jones was sued in South Carolina and fired in March 2015. She was charged with racial discrimination.
According to court documents, she claimed that Richland County officials treated her unfairly and underpaid her because she was black and had a disability. She also claimed that the county had treated her unfairly because she had “reported serious fraud, wrongdoing, and violations of the law.”
According to court records, the complaint was voluntarily dismissed in April 2017 without any explanation. Her LinkedIn profile reveals that she listed herself as the “Principal CEO” of her own consulting business, Word of Mouth Realtime, prior to being employed by Kenly.
Sheriff Steve Bizzell of Johnston County promised that his deputies would “step up” to fill in for the missing Kenly police officers. “I will be there for the people of Kenly, and they can rest assured they will have deputies patrolling the streets,” he said.
Photo: Facebook/Josh Gibson/Kenly Police