VELDA CITY — The police department here shut down on Friday after its three officers and chief resigned from the force.
The news was posted on the Velda City police around 1:15 p.m. — 45 minutes before operations ceased.
Pagedale police will handle emergency calls, at least for now, said Sgt. Tracy Panus, a ºüÀêÊÓƵ County police spokeswoman. The department’s front door locks were being changed around 4 p.m. Friday, and Pagedale officers were seen in the area.
Velda City, with a population of about 1,200 people, is the latest small municipality in north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County to disband its police department over the past decade. Neighboring towns Charlack did so in 2015, Pine Lawn followed suit in 2016 and Kinloch shut down its police force in 2018.
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Some of those cities are now patrolled by county police, but others are handled by the North County Police Cooperative, a police force founded to patrol small municipalities in north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County.
According to the department’s Facebook post, Velda City’s officers resigned because the “municipal government (was) essentially forcing†them out.
“At this point, we are trying to move the city forward,†Alderman Derrick Gill told the Post-Dispatch on Friday. “We need an accredited police department. The dysfunction — you can see it on display.â€
The closure stemmed from the Board of Aldermen’s decision to contract with an outside agency during attempts to rein in the city’s finances, according to the Facebook post.
The city chose to merge with Hillsdale Police Department, but police wrote that before the board of aldermen could approve the merger on Wednesday, “interim Mayor Gwendolyn Buggs spoke or met in secrecy and conspired to rescind the already approved merger.â€
The vote was tied 2-2, and as the tiebreaker Buggs killed the merger, police said. The mayor did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Residents should know the truth,†police wrote on Facebook. “For the last several months, the department has only had three officers on the street. Not three officers per shift, three officers total for the department.â€
Gill, the alderman, said he voted against the move in part because Hillsdale is not accredited and the merger would mean giving two of Velda City’s police cars to the Hillsdale department.
But Gill said he blames police Chief Daniel Paulino for the closure since Paulino doubles as Velda City’s administrator.
“If there is a financial issue, he was involved in it,†Gill said, noting the officers’ resignations were “obviously orchestrated.â€
The chief did not respond to a request for comment.
“It’s just really bad altogether,†Gill said. “(Paulino is) the real reason we are in this situation.â€
Paulino made about $99,000 last year as chief and administrator, according to the Post-Dispatch’s salary database. His officers made between $44,000 and $49,000.
When reached by phone Friday afternoon, Alderman Buffie Griffin said she did not know about the police department’s closure.
The city’s other aldermen — Carolyn Tomlin and Melvin Jarrett — did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Velda City is southeast of Normandy and north of Wellston and Pagedale.
Robert Cohen of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.