By Megan Alley
Sun Reporter
Plans for the future of the village of Bethel Police Department are developing, following an independent review of the department that was recently completed and released to the public.
In September 2020, the village of Bethel engaged the services of Hamilton Township Police Department Chief Scott Hughes to prepare an evaluation of the Bethel Police Department.
On January 9, the village posted a message on its official Facebook page stating: “Chief Steve Teague is on leave, and [Sergeant] Mark Planck is currently in command of the Bethel Police Department.”
Hughes’ 28-page report was posted to the village website on Jan. 18.
The Sun covered the report in a story headlined, “Bethel officials release independent review of police department,” which ran in the Jan. 21 edition of this newspaper.
The village’s Safety Committee, which met via Zoom on Feb. 8, was the first Bethel government entity to take up the issues reported and recommendations made in the report.
The committee is made up of village council members Ron Dunn, Dawn Hollifield and committee chair Bryan Coogan.
Also attending the meeting were Bethel Mayor Jay Noble, Village Administrator Travis Dotson and Acting Police Chief Planck.
Noble opened the meeting by saying that council will assist the department as it moves forward with implementing changes.
“Basically, over the course of the past two or three weeks, since the police department review has been out, we’ve taken a hard look at the daily stuff that we can work on to make some improvements and move forward with, and my role in this is to give support,” Noble said. “If there’s anything that I can do, in my role, to help expedite these things, as much as possible.”
Planck then went over the list of changes – which focus on the most immediate needs first – that have been implemented so for.
These are listed as:
-The property room door now has a double lock system.
-A third party audit of the property room is underway and is set to be completed soon.
-Installation of the surveillance camera has been scheduled; the camera will monitor all entry into the property room.
Also discussed during the meeting were staffing needs and computer server separation.
Now, Planck along with Noble, Dotson and Fiscal Officer Bill Gilpin will begin working on an administrative plan that outlines action items, their costs, and a desired timeline for implementation.
“The plan will consider needs and changes at the one month, three month, six month, one year and beyond timelines,” Dotson explained in a follow up email.
The plan will be presented to the Safety Committee during its March meeting, which is currently scheduled for March 2 at 5:30 p.m.
The plan will then move to the village’s Finance Committee.
When asked, village officials did not comment on Teague’s status.
During the Feb. 8 meeting, Planck stated that he considered the role of the Acting Chief to focus on the present through the next three months.