Monday evening's townhall meeting for citizen input on qualities and knowledge sought in the next Statesboro chief of police in some ways resembled a "focus group" with about two dozen people in attendance, about a dozen of whom were not journalists or city staff or council.

About half a dozen of the non-official, non-media group did most of the talking, with Janice Allen Jackson, a senior consultant for Developmental Associates, seated alone up front at the council dais to listen. With Chief Charles "Mike" Broadhead retiring July 1 after nine years at the helm of the Statesboro Police Department, city staff headed by City Manager Charles Penny selected Developmental Associates LLC, based in Durham, North Carolina, to lead a national search for a new chief. Developmental Associates is the same firm whose search in late 2016 through the early months of 2017 led to Broadhead's hiring.

In a May interview, city Human Resources Director Demetrius Bynes had described the process as starting with a series of "focus groups," with the town hall meeting being one for input from the general public. As Monday's meeting got underway at

6 p.m., Jackson reported that she and her firm were already on-task.

"I have been in your city all day today," she said. "I have met with some patrol officers, I've met with the current chief of police and I've met with several of your City Council members. So, all of this is helping to inform the process."

Developmental Associates had already held a couple of virtual meetings with staff members in the Police Department as well as the city manager and his team, Jackson noted.

Priority questions

She invited townhall participants to comment on 1) challenges and opportunities faced by the police chief, the community and Police Department in the next one to three years; 2) top issues the chief should focus on in the first year on the job; and 3) the key knowledge, skills and abilities the next chief needs.

Developmental Associates will use this information in three ways during the search process, she said. First, responses from the public and other stakeholder groups will be used to develop recruitment brochures. Second, the community input will guide the development of interview questions. Third, it will be used in a "skills evaluation," also known as an "assessment center."

Up to 15 applicants will be interviewed, and unlike some search firms, Developmental Associates will not select which ones to interview, instead relying on Penny as city manager to do that, Jackson said.

But the firm will supply questions and a rubric for scoring the answers, she said. The "assessment center" will be scored separately by public safety personnel. That process was also used nine years ago.

Present in community

Len Fatica, previously a public safety director for 17 years in another state, and here in retirement a volunteer with Bulloch County VOAD and other community service groups and sometime candidate and political organizer, was first to speak.

"What I want to say first of all is that I think our chief has done an outstanding job of not being in an ivory tower, getting out, working with the community, being at key events in the community," Fatica said. "I think that's going to be critical for the new chief of police, working with the disadvantaged youth and adults in this community, … working with the police officers on how to handle those folks with special needs. …"

Later, toward the end of the meeting, Fatica also suggested that a high priority for the new SPD chief should be working with other local law enforcement agencies, including the Georgia Southern University Police, OTC Campus Police and, especially, the Bulloch County Sheriff's Office.

He also spoke of the possibility of promoting from within the department versus hiring from outside, and said that either has advantages but also raises concerns.

"I would think that if we have a very qualified candidate inside the Police Department that there may be preference given to them at this time because there's so much change going on with the city, with Mr. Penny leaving us," Fatica said.

Penny has announced that he will retire as city manager Jan. 1, 2027.

College-town issues

Cathy Dixon, a lifelong Statesboro resident who retired as transportation director for Bulloch County Schools and often participates in city and community focus groups and townhall sessions, said that being "a college town" is one of the challenges for Statesboro and its police.

"So we have approximately 20,000 students out there, some away from their families for the first time, and they may try things that they might not try at home," she said. "So that is a challenge. It's also an opportunity for police to get involved with that community, and maybe stop some of the issues before they become (more serious problems)."

She added that the community should be honest about its issues with crime and drugs and suggested the city needs to address some "negligence in dealing with people who are not adhering to speeding laws and traffic lights."

But when Jackson asked a few minutes later if there were specific types of crimes Dixon was concerned about, she mentioned shootings and assaults in the area around campus.

Special-needs awareness

Jessica Orvis said she was there representing a family with an autistic teenager.

"Our current chief has been very good about training his people to deal with these special-needs adults and teenagers in particular, and I would like to see that be something that our new chief is also (willing to do)," she said.

Yesenia Leon, who operates a small community service organization and has worked as a bilingual facilitator, also voiced similar concerns as the mother of an autistic young adult. Her family, she said, has experienced crisis response situations involving law enforcement at Statesboro High School.

"Those experiences raised difficult questions that I believe our community must address honestly," Leon said. "How should officers respond when an autistic individual is overwhelmed, dysregulated and nonverbal?"

Sociologist Marieke Van Willigen, Ph.D., said she had been pleasantly surprised when she first encountered Broadhead talking with people in the community and "being approachable" instead of always acting like he was "walking the beat."

"I think one of the things we need in our next leader is somebody who also recognizes that they do need to connect with, you know, the various different constituencies within the community: long-term residents, new transplants," Van Willigen said. "We have a very diverse community, lots of different ethnic groups, … LGBT members of the community who are sometimes afraid to come into contact with police."

'Chance to lead'

Gary Lewis, a former City Council member who noted that he had also once been in law enforcement, spoke for hiring from within the department.

"We have local policemen here and they're coming up and they've been here a long time, and I think that they should have a chance to lead," Lewis said.

For Developmental Associates, the next step will be creation of the recruitment brochure for submission to the city, Jackson said. During Tuesday evening's City Council meeting, where he named Capt. Jared Akins to serve as interim police chief, City Manager Penny said he hopes to have the permanent position posted for applications by the end of June, with the expectation of filling the position in late October to early November.

Acknowledging that Developmental Associates handled the search nine years ago, Jackson said the firm loved being invited back. But she noted that she wasn't with the company then.

Instead, Jackson around that time was administrator of the Augusta-Richmond County consolidated government. She was once also city manager in Albany, Georgia.