EAST SPENCER, N.C. — The town of East Spencer is struggling to staff its police department.
The East Spencer Police Department is supposed to have eight full-time officers on the force while it is fully staffed.
However, Chief John Fewell has been the only officer there for the last four days.
“We’re trying to make it work,” Fewell said. “It is a little hard with me being the only full-time, but I think we’ll get through it.”
Recently, three of the full-time officers left for higher-paying departments, two were fired for misconduct, one quit and another retired.
Residents are on edge with no officers to patrol the streets in the eastern Rowan County town.
“Why don’t we have any police? And we haven’t had it in a while,” a woman said at a town meeting Monday night. “Who can I call if somebody breaks into my house now?”
The chief now only has the help of two part-time employees who assist on the weekends.
“As far as any calls that need a report or something like that, sometimes they might tell that person to wait until an officer comes on duty and then I can take that report and do my investigation,” Fewell said. “East Spencer’s call volume is not that high anyway. We don’t have a huge call volume as it is, and we do have officers over in Spencer that come over and help and answer calls.”
The chief said some of the staffing issues are due to disagreements with his management style.
“Some rules get changed,” Fewell said. “Some people get upset with that, and I will say there was at least one person that was upset with some of the rule changes.”
Town Manager Michael Douglas said that pay is the biggest obstacle stopping the police department from being fully staffed.
It’s been his top priority since joining the town in June 2021.
“The East Spencer Police Department is one of the lowest-paid police departments in Rowan County,” Douglas said. “The starting pay when I arrived was just under $29,000. Currently, the starting pay now is $41,500.”
The town board approved Douglas’ plan Monday night to ensure East Spencer has proper police protection, which is a contract with the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office.
“The interagency agreement with the Rowan County Sheriff’s Department states that they will fill shifts for the town of East Spencer at the rate of $50 per person, per hour,” Douglas said.
Earlier this year, the town board budgeted $364,000 for police services, Douglas said.
“You will have a police presence here,” Douglas said. “Your taxes will not increase because we have this agreement. The monies that we are using to pay the sheriff’s department deputies and other departments, as well, is coming out of the salaries of the police department.”
The agreement will need the signature of the sheriff and the Rowan County Commission before its finalized.
Even if they do, sheriff’s deputies would still need to sign up for the 10 to 15 shifts that would be available.
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