The feasibility of restoring 24-hour police coverage has emerged as an issue in the Mansfield mayoral race, with incumbent Mayor Buddy Black and challenger Boyd Farmer offering differing perspectives on the city’s public safety needs, available resources and the challenges of providing around-the-clock law enforcement.
CLICK HERE to watch YouTube Reference: Roundtable Discussion (1:49:40)
Black said the city’s current level of police coverage is appropriate for Mansfield’s needs, citing what he described as a study showing relatively few calls for service during overnight hours. He added, “We don’t really have that much of a need, 24-hr is great but we did a study and over the past nine months of this year we only had 10 calls after 10 o’clock at night. And most of those, about 3/4 of those were medical calls. Mansfield is a small community and if we have more officers it takes more money we don’t have the resources for more. We can’t hire more and we don’t have the budget for more.”
Farmer, who previously served as Mansfield’s police chief, said extended police coverage has been provided in the past and can be restored. He stated that he has a plan to provide 24 hours of police coverage using the department’s current staffing level of three and a half officers without requiring additional funding. He emphasized the importance of police availability, saying, “Our citizens deserve 24-hr. police coverage.”
The candidates also expressed different views of the city’s current operations. Mayor Black said the city needs to “continue doing what we are doing” and that things are “great,” while Farmer said, “we need to step up our game.” Their comments prompted further examination of the dispatch statistics referenced by the mayor.
Following a Freedom of Information Act request for dispatch records, Resident News Network sought clarification regarding the reported study and the figures referenced by the mayor.
Mansfield Police Chief Wyatt McIntyre clarified that the information referenced by city officials did not come from what he described as a “real study,” and explained how the data was obtained.
The information provided by McIntyre shows a difference in the reporting periods. While Black referenced nine months of call activity, McIntyre stated that the report requested from Sebastian County covered Jan. 1 through Aug. 1, between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Additionally, McIntyre indicated that Scott County’s dispatch records had not been obtained at the time of his response. Instead, he said county officials had verbally indicated that the number of calls was “very low.”
Those distinctions raise questions about whether the figures cited represent a complete accounting of overnight calls for service within Mansfield.
The River Valley Communications Center, which now oversees dispatching services for the area, subsequently provided an additional report detailing calls for service. However, as Director Dr. Wes Milam noted, the center served as the custodian of these records only for the month of July. The report is linked below for public review.
CLICK HERE to view River Valley Communications Center Dispatch Log (month of July)
The records provide additional context to the debate, particularly regarding the number and nature of calls received during overnight hours.
The candidates’ differing views reflect a broader question facing Mansfield voters: whether the current level of police coverage adequately serves the community or whether restoring 24-hour coverage should be a priority.
Black has cited budgetary limitations and the reported low volume of overnight calls as reasons for continuing the current system. Farmer argues that the availability of law enforcement should not be determined solely by the frequency of calls and maintains that the city can restore the coverage it previously provided.
With the November 3 general election approaching, police coverage remains one of the issues distinguishing the two candidates’ approaches to city leadership.
