Tom Davis

By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(Feb. 22, 2018) Two Snow Hill residents brought up issues of communication with police during the Town Council meeting last Tuesday.

Police Chief Tom Davis said a part-time staffer “sometimes” answered calls to the station.

“She’s not there any set number of hours,” he said. “She sometimes works late shift, early shift, it just depends on what her schedule is.”

Resident Carolyn Brown said of calls being returned, “that’s not happening all the time.”

“At the nighttime, we had somebody peeping in the window, [so] we started that process and we give up on it. It takes so long to get through it and you’ve got somebody peeping in the window, deciding who you want to talk to is not the top priority,” she said.

“No, you should be calling 911,” Davis said.

Davis said an answering machine is checked daily, but resident Margaret Cylc said she called police three weeks ago “and I have not heard from anyone yet.”

“I left my name, my phone number and the problem — and I’ve waited,” she said, adding the message was left specifically for Davis.

“I wanted to talk to a police officer about a problem on the street and nobody was calling back,” Cylc said.

She said an empty trailer parked in the roadway on Collins and Federal Street had no reflectors, and was difficult to see and blocking emergency vehicles.

“Obviously, I didn’t get the message,” Davis said. “That’s obviously a problem somewhere in the phone line system.”

He added he was not aware of the trailer.

“Just call again,” Davis said. “Call and speak with the sheriff’s office. They are supposed to dispatch a person to you.”

“I knew I would be better off to come down here,” Brown said.

Davis later reiterated he checked messages daily.

“If that’s the system and you the check the messages … we’re not getting good response,” Brown said.

“I understand that and I said I’ll look into it,” Davis said “Obviously, it’s going to a different mailbox — it’s going to somebody else’s mailbox.”

Davis said anyone could reach a Snow Hill officer by calling the county sheriff’s department.

“They dispatch our calls. If you ask for an officer from Snow Hill to call you, they will call you. It’s that simple,” he said. “If you say, ‘I live at 103 Collins Street and I need to speak with a Snow Hill officer,’ they will either patch you through to him, on his cellphone, or they will dispatch him to your house.

“I’ll look into the phone,” Davis said. “If you want to meet, give me your number. I will look into this and call you back. But, there’s no sense in getting upset and waiting three weeks.”

Davis did not return calls for additional comment.