Bedford mayor accuses police chief of misleading city council over officers’ departures
Bedford Mayor Michael Boyter accused the police chief of misleading the city council by not disclosing the top reasons officers are leaving for other jobs and for failing to provide accurate data about training.
Boyter questioned Police Chief Jeff Gibson during a city council work session and said that failing to disclose information meant that council members didn’t have all of the information they needed to make decisions that were in the best interest of Bedford’s residents and businesses.
“I can’t allow misleading statements. I can’t allow the truth not to be told to the council because it impedes us from doing our job,” he said.
Gibson told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in an interview that he did not mislead council members, and that he did not know he would be questioned about the data on officers leaving and the department’s training records.
“I saw this (police staffing) agenda item at the last minute. I was given no direction as to what was going to occur last (Tuesday) night,” Gibson said.
“Therefore, I was not prepared to answer those questions. In full disclosure, I have some work to do to look at that data,” he said.
When asked about the mayor’s accusations, Gibson said if the mayor feels that he was given information inconsistently, then “he deserves to know the truth”.
Boyter said that during budget meetings on Aug. 1 and Aug. 24, the council wanted to know why the police department had a “large number of departures.”
Gibson told council members that the main reasons for officers leaving were for better pay and better benefits. But the council submitted open records requests for exit interviews conducted during the past three years and learned that the top reason why officers left was because of concerns over supervision and leadership.
Other reasons for leaving included low morale, lack of opportunities and questionable advancements.
Better pay and benefits were also listed, Boyter said, but they did not rank as high as the other reasons that weren’t mentioned to the council, he said.
Boyter said Gibson and the city’s director of human resources gave the council information about all of the departments, but council members wanted to know why the police department had a large number of departures.
Gibson said council members were given information from all city departments during the budget meetings, not just the police department.
“There was no information that was withheld. There were all of the exit interviews. There was a misunderstanding about a particular department. I hadn’t looked at the exit interviews in several weeks,” Gibson said.
When asked about police officers training records, Gibson said the training is up to date. But Boyter said there are also inconsistencies in the training records.
When asked why the council wanted more detail on the police department, Boyter said that since 2017, he noticed the department was always down 10 to 20 officers and that the numbers weren’t changing.
During the budget discussions, Boyter said he and other council members questioned Gibson because the information affected overtime and other areas.
Boyter said he learned through open records requests that the data on training for police officers was “grossly inaccurate.”
In some cases, officers hadn’t been trained in some procedures for five years, the mayor said.
“The facts did not match with what was being told to council,” Boyter said.
“I remain disappointed that Chief Gibson’s comments were untruthful to council.”