The Hamlet Town Council has selected a former Knox police chief to take over the town’s police department. Council members voted Wednesday to offer the position of town marshal to Clint Norem. He served as police chief under former Knox Mayor Rick Chambers.
However, the job offer drew several concerns from former Hamlet Town Marshal Jeremiah Patrick during Wednesday’s meeting. For one thing, should Norem accept the job offer, he would likely continue to live in Knox but would not be allowed to take a police vehicle home with him.
Not only does that have the potential to increase emergency response times in Hamlet, but Patrick also questioned whether the town would be liable if an accident should occur while Norem drives between Knox and Hamlet. “I don’t know if you know it, but he will drive from Knox several times a day to answer a call,” Patrick said. “It will happen. And that’s why I mention checking with the insurance. There’s some kind of civil liability there; I believe that completely. I bet you there’s case law on it.” Council members noted that none of the six people who applied for the job currently live in Hamlet, although some were willing to relocate.
Should Norem decide not to take the position, that raises another issue. Current Marshal Frank Lonigro had planned for his resignation to become effective today, which would leave the town without a full-time police officer until a different town marshal is found.
Additionally, Patrick also raised concerns about the town’s entire search process, complaining that only four of the six applicants were ever interviewed. “You took a list of names. You eliminated two of them biasedly or unbiasedly, I don’t know, no one knows. And I’m not saying you did wrong,” he said. “The right way to do that is – and I’ve been through many hiring processes – is you’ve got to have a process to eliminate people. There should have been some kind of a step for every single individual. I just feel like the whole thing was just kind of thrown together. And I’m not saying you made the wrong choice. I’m not saying that at all. Time will tell. But what I’m saying is the process by which you made your selection, I completely disagree with.”
He also said that more background information should have been obtained from applicants’ previous employers prior to making a decision.
