Last week, we learned that one of the City of Indianola’s most effective and well-liked department heads has been chosen to fill another position in another town.
Police Chief Edrick Hall Sr. is the man the City of Columbus wants to fill their vacant slot as assistant police chief.
During a special call meeting last Thursday night by the Indianola Board of Aldermen, the city voted unanimously to begin advertising Hall’s job, anticipating that he will depart from Indianola at the end of June.
Mayor Steve Rosenthal expressed an outside hope that the city could convince Hall to stay, but he said that it was best the city not delay the search for its next police chief
Hall even expressed to The Enterprise-Tocsin last week that he was not 100 percent sure that he is going to take the job in Columbus. He said he is still praying about the matter.
I hope the city fathers are praying about this matter as well.
Hall has served as police chief of Inverness and Indianola, and he is very well-liked by the community.
When we broke the news that Hall was considering leaving his position, the response on social media was overwhelmingly positive for him.
Most wished him well, and there were a few who wrote at length about how much they liked and appreciated Hall, but there were absolutely zero negative comments about the man on our Facebook feed.
That says a lot.
In Hall’s position, he and his department have to mitigate all sorts of disputes, and they have to arrest and prosecute hundreds of people within this community every year.
The fact that no one said “good riddance” to Hall’s potential departure should give our city leaders pause as they think about who the police chief after July 1 will be.
Hall’s reported $66,000 a year salary he would make in Columbus is not that much different than what he is making in Indianola, so his reasons for leaving the community are hardly about money.
Hall told The E-T that he left higher pay behind with the school district and the City of Inverness to take the job in Indianola, because he wanted to make a difference in the community.
And he has made that difference.
Violent crime is down in the city. Morale is up at the police department, and his department is almost fully staffed.
IPD was eight officers shy of being fully staffed when he took over.
Hall said that he has been particularly disappointed with the discord between the aldermen and the mayor.
It is not too late for the mayor and the board to reach out and try to salvage their relationship with Hall and try to keep him on as the city’s top cop.
There are circumstances when the city needs to see fresh faces in leadership, but this is not one of them.
Hall has run a solid and clean department during his tenure, and the community’s response should tell the board members that he is the preferred man for the job by the citizens of this town.
If Hall were to leave, he has even delayed that by over a month so that he can oversee the B.B. King Homecoming Festival and finish work on a grant that he started.
If that doesn’t tell you Hall’s heart is in the right place, nothing will.
Hall may ultimately decide to move on, but the city should at least make the effort to keep him. He has earned that much.
