Almost five years after being named to lead the department, Randy Caplinger’s days as Smithville Police Chief may be over.
Saying he felt the department needs new leadership, Mayor Jimmy Poss placed Chief Caplinger on suspension pending termination during a meeting Friday morning at city hall. Police Commissioner Jason Murphy, who supports the move, was also at the meeting along with City Attorney Vester Parsley.
“I told Randy I didn’t believe the police department was headed in the right direction, that the morale was low among the officers, and that we needed to make a change and that change was to remove him,” Mayor Poss told WJLE.
According to city officials, Chief Caplinger is being given the opportunity to voluntarily resign or retire from the department and a meeting of the mayor and board of aldermen is planned for Tuesday to discuss whether to offer Caplinger a severance package if he should choose to step aside without a challenge.
“Currently it’s a suspension until Tuesday and then it’ll either be a resignation or firing,” said City Attorney Parsley.
Should Caplinger opt not to resign, city officials say he has seven business days to request a hearing before the entire board of aldermen who has the power to sustain or overturn a termination . According to the city’s new policies and procedures, which were adopted last year, a request for a hearing must be made to the mayor. The mayor then has five business days to respond. If the process were to get that far, both Mayor Poss and City Attorney Parsley say Caplinger would be granted a hearing. “My advice was to give him a hearing because in the past we have given others a hearing. That’s a policy we had in place for a long time,” he said.
In the meantime, Captain Steven Leffew has been named Officer in Charge of the police department.
Caplinger was named police chief in May 2010. Prior to that he was Transportation/Safety Director for Kitchen Craft of Smithville. Caplinger is also a retired Lieutenant Colonel/Major of the Tennessee Highway Patrol.
WJLE spoke with Caplinger by phone for a response Friday afternoon but he preferred not to make a statement at this time.
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