Three officers resign from Centralia police
CENTRALIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Three more Centralia police officers resigned Thursday after the Chief of Police Bob Bias resigned on Sept. 29 and took early retirement effective on Oct. 10.
A former officer says he was wrongly fired last month and he was the first of three officers to leave the Centralia police in the last month including the current Chief of Police Bias.
Logan Feger, former Centralia Patrol Officer, resigned Thursday and said he has had enough of city leaders not being transparent with its citizens.
"People have made claims that the city is not being transparent and I agree. How come our current city administrator violate state laws and city ordinances that she is supposed to uphold."
Feger said he couldn't stay silent because he took an oath to protect the citizens.
"And for me it is very hard to stay silent when I have taken that oath to serve and protect them."
Feger said it's time for the city administrator and mayor to resign.
"I shouldn't have been the one, neither should the lieutenant, neither should the weekend shift guy, neither should the chief have been made to resign. It's time for our city leaders to make the hard decision and resign."
Centralia Mayor Chris Cox says the city has contacted the Boone County Sheriff’s department to assist the police department. The sheriff’s department has agreed to help.
Cox told me the cities top priority is to protect its citizens and officers and said the information about the city not doing the right thing is merely rumors.
"Anytime you have facebook and everything else on social media there's an opportunity for us to have misconceptions and misinformation or parts of information that people think they know."
In a release, the City of Centralia will continue to search for a new police chief and promote an interim chief from inside the department.
After Chief Bias gave his resignation, Centralia residents say the resignation was unexpected and want answers from city officials.
City administrator Heather Russell confirmed an additional officer resigned on Sept. 29 but wouldn't discuss the details of that resignation either.
Russell said that on Sept. 30, the Centralia Police Department has nine full-time sworn officers, one code enforcement officer and a civilian support staff of six.
The department now only has four officers on staff.
