[07/12/01] Five staffing changes have been made at the Vicksburg Police Department that Chief Mitchell Dent said Wednesday will strengthen the force.

Lt. Chip Denman, formerly head of code enforcement, will take charge of Internal Affairs, the division that “polices the police.”

Denman, whose job had been enforcing zoning and building permit laws and such, said he is excited about the change and ready to get to work in his new position. “I consider this another chance to help the police department and the city,” he said.

Denman, an eight-year veteran of the force, said he would not let any wrongdoing go unnoticed or unpunished. “There will be some aggressive changes in the way the police department is investigated internally.”

Dent said the department’s code enforcement officers, Denman and Patrolman Dan King, will be disbanded. Under a revamped city organizational chart, code enforcement is again under the city’s Inspection Department. King will now work on the Neighborhood Enforcement Team.

“Patrol officers will, of course, continue to enforce those laws, but we will not have a specific division to do it,” Dent said.

The former head of Internal Affairs, Lt. Linda Hearn, has been moved and placed in the Training Division.

Dent said Hearn is undergoing rehabilitation after a knee injury and the new position is better suited for her now.

Also, Sgt. Jimmy Sweet has been taken out of Internal Affairs and moved into the Juvenile Division.

“We have been receiving a lot of complaints about curfew violations, so we needed an officer to specifically address that,” Dent said.

Sweet, a 15-year veteran, was transferred to Internal Affairs in March.

That move came about a month after his promotion to sergeant, a promotion that came about after he was allowed to finish a promotional exam almost two months after declining to do so.

In August, the Civil Service Commission had voted unanimously to allow Sweet to answer the 25 questions he skipped when he took the test on June 13, 2000.

Sweet said he didn’t complete the test originally because he said he’d seen a notice that said the exam would contain 100 questions, not 125.

Sweet, who is no stranger to controversy, was also publicly named as a suspect in a 1994 arson fire that damaged offices of the Narcotics Bureau in the former public library building on Monroe Street. He was never charged, and his transfer to patrol from narcotics was reversed in a circuit court decision.

Sgt. Beverly Prentiss, who served as the public information and community relations officer, was transferred to the Domestic Violence Unit to work with Sgt. Jackie Johnson.

“Sgt. Johnson was having to handle more than 50 cases a month by himself, and that was a lot for him to follow up on,” Dent said.

Patrolman Jamee Carter, who worked in the Juvenile Division, will take over as spokesman for the department, Dent said.

In two changes not related to personnel, modifications are being made to the Investigative Division and in patrol.

The Investigative Division will now be split into two categories, Dent said.

Previously, the eight detectives in the unit were assigned cases regardless of the type of crime.

Now three detectives will be assigned to crimes against property and five assigned to cover crimes against people.

“This will allow for each investigator to develop expertise in investigating a specific type of crime and they won’t have to switch back and forth between the two,” Dent said.

In the Patrol Division the north and south Districts that were established in January are now being abolished.

Patrolmen were split into either the north or south district in an effort to have more concentrated coverage and better response time, Dent said. “The increase in response time wasn’t big enough for us to continue doing it,” he said.

Now patrol units will be supervised by a lieutenant and two sergeants, opposed to one lieutenant.

Dent said this will give supervisors more discretion in where they send patrolmen.

“Now they can move people around to different areas as they need them, instead of officers being in one area only,” Dent said.

A lack of confidence in the police department was identified as Vicksburg’s main problem in a survey Mayor Laurence Leyens said he commissioned last fall before seeking election.

Since the new administration took office July 1, Leyens has said having the department managed professionally instead of politically will be a priority.