Demopolis Police Chief Reese looks to future

Tommie Reese will celebrate 29 years in law enforcement in September, five of those years as chief of the Demopolis Police Department.
He points with pride that crime in the city has dropped 39 percent since he took over the duties of chief and that the department has been able to solve most of those crimes.
“The city is safer now than it was,” he said.
Reese lost his bid to become Marengo County Sheriff, but he doesn’t see himself stepping away from enforcing the law. “We’re going to continue to work here and do what we can for Demopolis to make Demopolis a better place,” he said.
He is most proud of the people who work in the department. “I applaud the men and women here. They’ve bought into the mission,” he said as he held the framed motto, “Service, Integrity and Courage,” and the mission statement, “Quality police service for a better community.”
Reese said the department has been able to get the equipment it needs through grants and with confiscated drug money.
“I try to do stuff that doesn’t cost the taxpayers a lot of money, to try to find other avenues to do things to offset my budget,” he explained.
Since he started writing grants for the department, it has received more than $400,000.
He also pointed to the generous donation by Rock-Tenn for the mobile command post, a “police station on wheels.” The equipment inside the unit came from grants.
The mobile command post is used frequently, most recently at Freedom on the River and the Songwriters Festival, he said. The week it was delivered, the mobile unit was used in Tuscaloosa after the devastating tornado that hit the city.
Another grant paid for a police officer’s salary for three years.
The canine unit paid for itself within one year after detecting more than $83,000 in drugs.
The department recently upgraded its computers, got new radios and purchased a Segueway.
He was able to set up a gym for his officers, which eliminated the annual $6,000 in gym fees.
Recently the department purchased 12 body cameras for officers to wear. “The cameras are for the officers’ safety, and they cut down liability and a lot of complaints,” said Reese. At the end of each shift, the video is uploaded to the cloud, making it always available for review and safe from tampering.
Reese’s capital expenditure budget from the city is $69,000, which will pay for two fully outfitted patrol cars.
He said the department is actively looking to hire new officers to replace those who have left for better jobs. There is a better chance of attracting people of integrity to the department since he managed to increase the salaries of starting patrolmen his first year by forgoing the purchase of new cars.
“When a person puts his life on the line they ought to get something,” he continued. Being a policeman is a “thankless job,” since they must leave their families, work in all kinds of inclement weather and dodge fists.
Most people don’t hear of the dangerous situations his people face daily. “You think Demopolis is where it doesn’t happen,” Reese said. “It happens. Officers get in fights around here all the time.”
To help his officers, Reese managed to purchase 27 tasers for $26,000, half of which the department paid for.
The tasers were used frequently when first purchased. Word has gotten around, however, and the need to use the tasers has dropped dramatically.
“Once you tase the fight is basically over,” said Reese.
He admitted to being apprehensive at first about using tasers, concerned that they might be misused. The use of tasers, however, has “cut down on liability and on officer injury and suspect injury, and it was recommended by the city insurance carrier.”
Now Reese and his department are working on the lengthy process of earning national accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, or CALEA.
“It gets our mode of operation and policies up to a national standards,” he explained. “You’re able to fight court battles even better because your training is set at a certain level, your policies are at a certain level.”
Training for the department has been enhanced with the start of an in-house program, Reese continued. The “mini-training academy” gets rookie officers ready to tackle the rigorous state program.
“Since I started that program we’ve had pretty much every officer who comes out of that academy come out with awards,” said Reese.
The academy gives five awards, and one of the recent Demopolis graduates received three of them.
Training doesn’t end after the basics. State law requires each officer to have a minimum of 12 hours continuing education annually. In the last year, Demopolis officers logged 32.5 hours. “It cuts down on liability again.”
Although Reese now has in enough time to be fully vested in retirement, he doesn’t plan to quit any time soon. As for considering another position in law enforcement, “We really don’t know what the Good Lord has in store for us to do.”