EVANSVILLE, Ind. — There doesn’t seem to be a resolution in sight in a disagreement between the Evansville Fraternal Order of Police and police chief Billy Bolin.
FOP President DJ Thompson said in a news conference last week that the whole thing started a discussion that he and the FOP wanted to have with Bolin over “several issues” that needed to be addressed with in the department. Thompson said Bolin then attached that email to an email he sent to the entire department.
Thompson said he understood that email to be a private conversation.
He added that was just the spark of the whole disagreement. At the meat of the issues, Thompson said there are two resounding issues that Chief Bolin is pushing that a majority of Evansville police officers disagree with: understaffing and body cameras.
“There are very few policemen that don’t like the cameras,” Thompson said. “But, what we don’t like with these (particular) cameras is the lack of privacy. As a matter of fact what the cameras have shown 99-percent of the time is that the police officer did there job and they did it right.”
Thompson added that a huge concern they have with body cameras is the lack of privacy.
“They record all the time,” he said. “I don’t know how many videos we have of officers taking a leak. When you go home it stays on. They camera stays on for two hours after you get home.”
Thompson said there are also “not enough police officers on the streets to keep the citizens of Evansville safe” and that there are not enough police officers to keep other officers safe as well. He’s urging Chief Bolin to hire more officers.
Last week, the FOP held a no confidence vote against Bolin in which Thompson said a majority of police officers in Evansville agree that Bolin is not the right person to be leading the department.
Mayor Lloyd Winnicke said last week he fully supports Bolin.
(PHOTO: Jim Watson/Getty Images)
