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A commissioner with law enforcement experience backs the police decisions citing safety and law enforcement priorities
KENANSVILLE — Jackie Benton, Kenansville Chief of Police, told members of the town board of commissioners during their meeting on Jan. 6 that he had received complaints regarding where and how long police cars were parked during routine patrol. His remarks came during department reports near the end of the meeting.
Benton told the board he had received two complaints accusing the department of targeting the ABC Store in town when officers used the alleyway beside CVS Pharmacy, across from the ABC Store, or when they were in the ABC Store parking lot.
“The complaint was they thought we were targeting people leaving the ABC Store, which we do not do,” Benton said. “We can’t stop a vehicle without having reasonable suspicion or probable cause to make a traffic stop.”
Benton said another complaint accused two officers of parking in the ABC Store parking lot for a long period of time on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve.
“I went back and pulled the camera footage (from the police vehicles),” Benton said. “One vehicle sat next to the second vehicle for seven minutes, from 2:22 p.m. until 2:29 p.m. on the 31. The other vehicle sat (in the parking lot) for 20 minutes, from 2:09 p.m. until 2:29 p.m.”
Kenansville Mayor Pro Tem Milta King, who also serves as chair of the Kenansville ABC Board, accused the police of affecting sales at the store.
“The first instance, that happened with the ABC Store, they (police) made 19 arrests that month when we normally have seven,” King said. “They were sitting in the ABC parking lot and when cars would leave the liquor store, they would follow them around the store and stop them,” an accusation Benton denied, saying that the 19 arrests that month included five DWIs, drug arrests and arrests of people with outstanding warrants.
King said, “There are people in the community, they may not be drunk when they leave the store, but they may not have a license, they may not have proper tags, so when they see that police car, they are gone. The ABC Store helps the town financially; it helps the police department financially.”
Town board member Linda Tyson, who also has experience in law enforcement, defended the actions of Benton’s officers.
“This is the law enforcement side of me,” Tyson told the board. “I would sit where I needed to sit to make sure everybody in the town of Kenansville is safe, and if it’s sitting across from the ABC store, or around the block from the ABC Store, I wouldn’t care, because nobody can replace somebody’s child that has been hit by somebody driving under the influence. Adults do it all the time. If they don’t want you there, then don’t go there, but sit across from there and do the same thing you’ve been doing.”
In other business
The board scheduled a public hearing during their March 3 meeting. The public hearing is the second request of town resident Sylvester Carlton to extend a mobile home overlay zone to include his property at 114 North Church Street. The property originally held a mobile home on the property until several years ago. Carlton now wants to place another mobile home on the property. A few months ago, the board took no action on approving his rezoning request.
Town manager Anna West advised Carlton that a new fee schedule, which the board approved later in the meeting, meant he would be responsible for the costs of advertising the public hearing and the cost of mailing certified mail notices to property owners in the area to advise them of the hearing. Carlton agreed to pay the zoning request fee as well as the additional costs.
The board agreed to give town staff authority to waive utility late fees for residents of the town if it is determined the issue involved the town’s transition to new software, which has been a challenge for the staff. The board extended the authority to waive late fees on an as-needed basis until March 31.
