CLARKSVILLE, Ind. — After a tense council meeting, Clarksville has a new police chief.
A shocked and soft spoken Mark Palmer now sits in a new office with a new role as the town public safety director after 33 years on Clarksville's police force–the last 12 as chief of police. He will be replaced by Captain Nathan Walls.
This was a decision that came down to a four to three vote.
"I think everybody was a shock value. I mean, I can't say that I didn't suffer the same thing," Palmer said.
At a town council meeting Tuesday, four Democratic members voted to remove him as chief by appointing Walls.
"[Walls] grew up here in Clarksville, so he's got a good relationship with everyone here. I think he'll he'll use that to help bridge a lot of the concerns that are going on," Palmer said.
Palmer said he hopes people give the new chief a chance.
"If we can just communicate with each other, then it will resolve a lot of the problems," he said.
His one criticism is communication, specifically from those who voted Walls in -- President Ryan Ramsey, councilwoman Karen Henderson, councilmen Bob McEwen, and Tony Munich.
WHAS11 has made over a dozen attempts to contact all of them since Thursday; however, no one has agreed to speak yet.
WHAS11 stopped by two of the members' offices and was told by Karen Henderson's co-worker she'd be in a meeting through the rest of the day. WHAS11 did see town council president Ryan Ramsay, but he declined to comment.
Four hours after visiting Henderson's workplace, WHAS11 asked her, again, over text, if she would be available this week to speak about the appointment, to which she responded "I'm praying for Peace and positive Changes!"
The town gave a limited job description of the new public safety position saying: "'Assisting the Town Manager in executing the long-term vision and goals for public safety for the town, in collaboration with the Town Council and Department Heads.'"
"I wanted to see this developed, I thought it had a lot of potential and was going to address some of the areas that I felt were not being addressed with the town. The timing on it. The timing, I probably had a different schedule for that," Palmer said.
A spokesperson said more information on the new job will be released in the coming weeks, a role Palmer is hoping to make the most of.
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