MOUNT CARMEL — Mount Carmel Mayor Larry Frost was criticized during Tuesday’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting for directing the police chief to rehire a former officer who was suspended and later terminated from the department in 2007.
William Dean, 511 Carnation Lane, Mount Carmel, told the BMA on Tuesday he doesn’t agree with the mayor’s decision to hire back former part time police officer David Dean (no relation).
David Dean was rehired as a part-time officer last month, shortly after Frost demoted former Police Chief Jeff Jackson.
David Dean was also hired onto the Mount Carmel Police Department only days after being fired from the Bean Station Police Department.
Bean Station Mayor Terry Wolfe, a retired Tennessee Highway Patrol investigator, told the Times-News on Wednesday he fired David Dean last month “for the betterment of the police department.”
In 2007, Jackson terminated David Dean from the MCPD for failure to complete his in-service training on time, which is a requirement of annual post training. Prior to David Dean’s 2007 termination, however, Jackson had suspended David Dean from the police department for allegedly padding his time card.
Aside from suspending Dean, Jackson required Dean to pay more than $600 in restitution to the city.
Since leaving the MCPD in 2007, David Dean has worked for and resigned from the Hawkins County Sheriff’s Office and Northeast State Community College campus security.
David Dean was fired from the Bean Station Police Department in January.
Wolfe retired from the THP, where he most recently served as special agent in charge of criminal investigations for the eastern half of the state.
Wolfe told the Times-News on Wednesday, “He (David Dean) was not doing what I thought he should do as a police officer for my community. He was fired for the betterment of the department.”
William Dean told the BMA during the citizens’ comments portion of Tuesday’s meeting he disagrees with the hiring of David Dean to the police department.
“This town has got a (reputation) that if a police officer gets run off from somewhere else, go to Mount Carmel,” William Dean added. “We’ve had several like that here, and I think that we deserve better than that.”
Frost didn’t respond to William Dean’s comments.
Jackson’s demotion after 13 years as police chief was announced publicly on Jan. 2. Shortly after, the Times-News asked Frost if that demotion had anything to do with Jackson firing David Dean in 2007.
Frost told the Times-News that Jackson’s demotion had nothing to do with David Dean.
“We just thought it would be better for the city of Mount Carmel if we changed the chief of police,” Frost told the Times-News in early January. “It’s no reflection on Jeff (Jackson), but we thought it was time to go in a different direction, and we needed to make some departmental changes — and that’s what we did. Jeff did a great job for the city, and he continues to do a great job, but we wanted to make some interdepartmental changes.”