Several Linden police resign
On April 7, 1:05 p.m. several individuals, at Linden Police Department, publicly resigned their positions on Facebook, explaining that April 21, would be their last day with the Department. Among those resigning were the current acting chief, two police officers, and an administrator.
On Friday the City of Linden responded to the situation letting the public know that the community will remain safe through the process and that the situation is taken care of.
Thursday, four employees issued this post to the Linden Community, “To the citizens of Linden, TX, We would like to start off by saying thank you, thank you to each and every one of you for your support and encouragement. We could not do our jobs without the assistance and partnership of the citizens. With that being said, several members of our department are resigning with April 21 being the last day with the Linden Police Department. We thank you all, and it has been our honor to serve you. Thank You, Officer Lorance; Officer Cruz; Officer Kennington, and J. Prosperie.
In response to the public resignations, Linden sent a response to the Journal-Sun, “Yes, we had three officers resign and 1 police admin assistant, submit their two-week resignation notice on Thursday, all effective on the same day. We greatly appreciate their service to our community and wish them well once their two-week notice time with our organization ends.
“Our police selection committee had chosen a lone finalist which they recommended to our city council to interview. Originally, we had scheduled Monday, April 25th for a special meeting for the candidate’s interview. With the resignations submitted for the same day by the three officers, having two vacancies already, leaving us with one current policeman, we have expedited the chief interview to a special meeting this upcoming Tuesday.
“Mayor Reynolds and I have met already with the Cass County Sheriff, and he has ensured us Linden will be covered. We have also reached out to Strategic Government Resources interim services, and they have a retired chief available in the East Texas region if needed. Surrounding cities and counties have also reached out to provide off-duty officers and auxiliary officers for our assistance. We would like the citizens of Linden to know, we will have plenty of professional law enforcement coverage in the interim transitional period.
“Again, we appreciate the officer’s service to our community and we wish them success in their future endeavors.”
Acting Police Chief, David Lorance released this statement to the newspaper Friday, “This is my statement. Due to circumstances beyond our control. We decided it is in the best interest of us and our team that we move forward with different endeavors. Again, we want to thank our citizens for all their love, support, encouragement, and help. This was in no way an easy decision for us to make. Our team is a family we are going to miss our citizens. While I served as Interim Police Chief, we accomplished a lot during the last six months of our employment as a team at the Linden Police Department. It was an honor to serve the city of Linden and the citizens. We will all go on 10/7 (out of service) at 4:00 p.m. on April 21.”