{"id":107194,"date":"2025-02-24T13:40:51","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T13:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/alabama\/decatur-police-chief-to-step-down\/"},"modified":"2025-02-24T13:40:51","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T13:40:51","slug":"decatur-police-chief-to-step-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=107194","title":{"rendered":"Decatur Police chief to step down"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Following months of protests and a problematic review of his department, the chief of police in Decatur has resigned.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chief Todd Pinion, who has been under fire since the alleged murder of Steve Perkins by Decatur Police officers in Sept. 2023, announced on Friday evening that he would resign his post as chief, but said he plans to remain with the department.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the lengthy statement, Pinion said he would remain as chief until an interim chief could be selected.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cLife brings many difficult decisions,\u201d Pinion said in the statement. \u201cI am faced with one today. I have loved serving as your Police Chief. I look back over the past three years and see a number of significant accomplishments.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The statement also wasn\u2019t without pointed barbs at city leaders who have questioned Pinion\u2019s leadership and whether he can effectively lead the department in the future. Two weeks ago, the Decatur City Council took an informal vote on Pinion continuing as chief and a majority voted against him \u2013 although not enough to force him out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI have heard that this city cannot move forward while I remain Chief,\u201d Pinion said in the statement. \u201cThis is only an excuse. Without a doubt, this excuse undermined our forward progress on such important things as community policing, crime prevention, officer recruitment and retention, and many of the items I shared last year in my executive plan. After much prayer and consideration, I have decided it is in the best interest of the city and my family to take away that excuse so healing can begin immediately.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was the actions of Pinion\u2019s officers \u2013 and their words about him in a recent third-party review of the department \u2013 that ultimately led a majority of the council to vote against Pinion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-6\" style=\"margin: 8px auto; text-align: center; display: block; clear: both;\">\n<div class=\"zox-post-ad-wrap\"><span class=\"zox-ad-label\">Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The city has already fired three officers \u2013 and one of them is now facing murder charges \u2013 over the shooting death of Perkins. Those officers improperly aided a tow truck driver in a repossession effort at Perkins\u2019 home \u2013 actions that clearly violated department policy and possibly the law. They hid out of sight around Perkins\u2019 home, including hiding their vehicles down the block, and then sprang from darkness, startling Perkins, who was armed with a handgun, when he exited his home to confront the tow truck driver. When Perkins turned towards the officers, surprised by their presence, one officer, Mac Marquette, opened fire before Perkins had an opportunity to understand what was happening.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Marquette fired 18 times. Perkins died on his front lawn.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the immediate aftermath, DPD released a statement that placed the blame for the shooting on Perkins, who, the release stated, refused to obey commands to drop his weapon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pinion was later forced to admit that the statement contained errors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There were additional problems later, as DPD officers were caught on video antagonizing protestors, arresting and confronting peaceful protestors and dramatically escalating situations that could have been handled without incident.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The recently completed third-party review of the department also was not kind to Pinion. It highlighted a number of incidents in which officers used trumped up charges, such as obstruction of governmental operations or disorderly conduct, to make questionable arrests.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Additionally, the report quoted officers within DPD saying small cliques within the department actually controlled the department, not the chief, and that those officers and their friends were rarely disciplined for violating policies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-6\" style=\"margin: 8px auto; text-align: center; display: block; clear: both;\">\n<div class=\"zox-post-ad-wrap\"><span class=\"zox-ad-label\">Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- CONTENT END 1 -->\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following months of protests and a problematic review of his department, the chief of police in Decatur has resigned.\u00a0 Chief Todd Pinion, who has been under fire since the alleged murder of Steve Perkins by Decatur Police officers in Sept. 2023, announced on Friday evening that he would resign his post as chief, but said [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":107195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11763],"tags":[3576,41161,48813,2562,2172,48814],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-107194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alabama","tag-chief","tag-decatur","tag-decatur-police-department","tag-police","tag-step","tag-todd-pinion"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - 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