ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, April 25, 1997                 TAG: 9704250038
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER THE ROANOKE TIMES 

PETITION RESPONSE - TOWN COUNCIL STANDS BY PULASKI POLICE DEPARTMENT

A petition making general complaints about Pulaski police had fewer town citizen signatures than originally believed.

The town of Pulaski has responded to a petition with some 300 signatures seeking an investigation of the Police Department.

Of the signatures, Pulaski officials identified only 165 as belonging to town residents.

Mayor John A. Johnston said council believed the petition's charges - such as violation of constitutional rights, excessive and illegal force and lack of respect to citizens - could not be addressed by Town Council because no specific examples or individual allegations were cited.

Johnston sent the response in a two-page letter to Carl Allison, who gathered the petition signatures.

"It is our understanding that this petition is a product of your efforts over a period of several years," Johnston told Allison. "Perhaps many of the 'behaviors' have since been corrected over a period of time. Certainly many procedures designed to improve the Police Department have been put into place since the time the petition was first circulated."

Johnston also said the non-town citizens who signed the petition "may have been thinking of other law enforcement officers." He said council has taken steps to improve the department.

"We have better-trained, more experienced and better educated law enforcement officers than ever before. These men and women face numerous situations every day that require them to make 'on the spot' judgements regarding situations and conditions, not unlike a soldier in combat. We readily understand that each decision these people make may not always be the optimum one that could be made," Johnston said. "However, experience tells us also that people charged with a crime sometimes bring complaints against law enforcement officers because they are simply disgruntled with their situation."

Complaints about any town employee should first be made to the department head. If the response is unsatisfactory, the complainant should take the matter to the town manager and, next, to council.

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