SUMMERDALE — Town Hall was packed here Tuesday night and emotions were running high while the town council and residents of the town discussed the future of Summerdale’s police department.

Nearly 50 people gathered for the council’s February work session. The work session consisted solely of discussion over the possible disbanding of the town’s five-man police department, most of whom were at the meeting.

Earlier in the week, Summerdale Mayor David Wilson approached the Baldwin County Sheriff’s office to discuss possible solutions to problems, which have arisen regarding the policing of the town. Wilson also announced no decisions have been made regarding the future of the police department.

Police Chief Dwain Riebeling  spoke in defense of himself and his officers and reminded Wilson they used to be friends and used to talk all the time, but they have grown apart. Riebeling expressed a desire to work things out between the police department and the town council.

“I wanted to try to talk the problems out to bring up the problems we have, or disagreements,” he said. “We still haven’t gotten together. I asked in December. I have told you time and time again to come talk to me.”

Wilson told those gathered at the meeting there have been issues with the police department lately and he has received complaints regarding the time the current police officers spend in their cars protecting Summerdale.

“We want the people in the town and surrounding jurisdictions to have protection. There have been many instances and many complaints of neglect of duty, neglect of professionalism. At this time here we have not disciplined these officers because they have all applied for jobs somewhere else, so why worry about it?” Wilson said.

Wilson also addressed the new vehicle policy the town council decided on in November, which would have required the officers to leave their vehicles in Summerdale when they were off duty. The policy was supposed to go into effect Jan. 1, but was rescinded in late January.

“We had complaints people were spending about as much time out of the limits,” Wilson said. “They need to do their job, bottom line. We also talked about taking away the take home vehicles because it was being abused so badly.

“We told the police officers, beginning Jan. 1, you are not to take your vehicles home. Jan. 1 came and went and everybody is still taking their cars home. We decided if they would continue to obey the rules they could continue to take the cars home,” said Wilson.

The town has also found itself down a few officers recently, so Wilson approached the sheriff to try to get backup deputies while the numbers for the department were down. According to Wilson, the sheriff also told him it was a possibility to replace the police department with deputies based in Summerdale.

“As the mayor I turned to the sheriff for options,” Wilson said. “That is the total story. The town of Summerdale is not in a financial hardship. We can hire people anytime we need to hire them. We can contract to provide these services for the protection of the people of Summerdale.”

He also said as the mayor he and the town council have to do what is best for the town, and police protection is needed. He said he had to make sure the town could continue to offer police protection somehow.

“We cannot be backed into the corner by a police chief and a police department that says ‘If you won’t hire the man we want we quit,’ ” Wilson said. “That is the bottom line. The police chief (Dwain Riebeling) has not applied for a job anywhere else. I told him through this, ‘Dwain, here are the options I am looking at, if you will work with me through this to find the best option we will find something for you to do if we decide to go with the sheriff’s department.’ I have tried to be as totally open and honest as I can be.”

Wilson also announced Summerdale would be losing two police officers in the near future, both will be joining the ranks of the Baldwin County Sheriff’s deputies.

“One of Summerdale’s officers starts a new job with the sheriff’s department (today),” Wilson said. “He has been a very good officer. Another officer has applied with the sheriff’s department; he is a very good officer, very good man. The sheriff said if he were to contract with us those guys, he would get them to work for the town of Summerdale.”

During the meeting one of Summerdale’s officers told the mayor the real reason some of the officers were leaving was because of the cars being taken away.

Wilson stressed no decision had been made, but he hoped everything could be worked out in-house without having to contract with the county.

“I would just encourage all of you to pray for us to have wisdom through this so that hopefully we can work this out with our current police department and go on about our day. It is not an easy thing. Trust me, who would want to go out and do this, nobody. We are not fools up here. We are here to do the proper, prudent business for the town of Summerdale.”

After Wilson outlined his reasoning, the meeting was turned over to anyone who wished to speak about the issue. The resounding message from the community gathered showed support and love for Summerdale’s officers and pleas the department not be dissolved and replaced by the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office.

Jennifer Ellis, a resident of Summerdale with two children in school praised the officers for their presence in the school and the exemplary job they have been doing.

“Every officer knows those children,” Ellis said. “It is not Baldwin County handling it. It has been your awesome chief, that awesome officer standing in the back and Officer Morgan. I don’t want my chief to leave. I don’t want my officers to leave. My children will not be safe at school. My police chief knows me by name. The officers do. How are we going to get a warm fuzzy feeling  from a deputy and know that we are going to be protected. We have that small town feel.”

Summerdale Officer Lance Morgan, who is leaving the town in the near future, also spoke and stood up for his chief.

“We are pretty much all policemen because we love it,” Morgan said. “People know us by first name, last name, they trust us. I don’t necessarily care for the fact that y’all occasionally attack the chief. He has done a good job, he has always backed me up. I have never had any problems with him.

“If you want us here, things of this nature and the media doesn’t make us feel welcome so what motivation do we have as police to want to stay in a community that doesn’t want us?”

Morgan’s speech was followed by an outcry from the community, declaring the community wanted the police officers to stay.

Riebeling also praised his officers, who he thinks do their job well.

“I will stand up for my officers as long as they are doing their job,” Riebeling said. “If they are not doing what they need to do I will take care of them. I have hired and fired many people in the ten years I have been chief. As far as the officer, right after you did not want to hire him you could have come to me and we could have figured something out. But, we didn’t.”

“These officers are not putting in applications other places because they want more money or because they would not love to stay here. They would love to stay here. It is going to take both of us getting back together,” said Riebeling.

Riebeling left the meeting clearly upset after he told the mayor and council, “It is tearing me apart, you trying to run me off from here.”