Watching the news and reading the papers reminds me of the dangers policemen face every time they go to work. All too often they never return to their loved ones because some nut took their lives. I for one admire them because that’s who you call when you are in trouble. However, the top cop at Fairhope seems intent on cleaning house at the Fairhope Police Department for some reason known only to him.

I personally feel his agenda is to get rid of every cop who may have the guts to stand up to him because he wants to rule “the roost,” as the saying goes. The one word people use to describe him is “arrogant,” but I don’t see why. I’ve personally met him, and he is just plain old Bill with no special characteristics to make him stand out among others. I think he knew there was trouble in FPD and did nothing to correct it, only because he could start implementing his goal of cleaning house.

If we sit back and allow these six FPD employees to be fired, I think he will be well on his way to cleaning out the whole department with more to follow. Is that what the citizens of Fairhope really want? We may just end up with a Miami police force in town. After all, we now go through metal detectors at the football stadium and had guard towers at the Arts and Craft Festival.

Anyway, for now, I’ll just put on my combat boots, apron and grab my spatula and go to work.

Willie Foster

Fairhope

Editor’s note: Long-time resident and owner of the Biscuit King restaurant in Fairhope, Foster walked the downtown streets last Thursday sporting a sandwich board in support of the police officers facing termination and against Police Chief Bill Press, who previously worked for a South Florida law enforcement agency and was hired as the city’s “top cop” in 2009 following a national search and public interviews.

Foster said he had not been asked by any official or candidate to wear the sign last week, which received coverage in this newspaper and on local TV. Nor was he allied with any political campaign for the upcoming August municipal elections, he said, in which the mayor and funeral home owner Gary Wolfe, who says he might run for City Council, have stated that Press and his policies could become a political issue for those seats. The five-person council hires and fires Fairhope’s police chief.

In 2009, The Courier reported that Mayor Tim Kant was involved in a “grassroots” campaign to hire FPD Capt. Steve Griffis for the top job, which involved sign-carrying supporters. Recommended earlier that year for termination by then interim chief, now Assistant Chief Terry Sanders, Griffis retired shortly before his disciplinary appeal went before the Personnel Board, with allegations involving equal employment opportunity law violations among others, according to Kant and others familiar with the case.