COOPERTOWN, Tenn. – The mayor of Coopertown has accepted the resignation of Police Chief Paul West, leaving the small town without a police force.
Mayor Sam Childs met with Chief West Friday, two days after West gave his verbal resignation due to backlash from a dash cam video of officers using racial slurs.
A police car recording caught a conversation between former Coopertown Officers Robert McCormick and Richard Bishop where they were using racial slurs. The officers were discussing how McCormick took the driver's license of black motorist Eddie Brown in mid-May, but did not give him a ticket after pulling him over.
Mayor Sam Childs met with Brown, who accused the officers of racial profiling, even though Childs said Brown did not submit a formal complaint.
Childs had originally ordered the officers to undergo sensitivity training, but they kept their badges and guns. McCormick was later fired, and Mayor Childs disbanded the reserve unit.
In an unrelated incident, another officer was fired after being accused of road rage.
The Robertson County Sheriff's Department will patrol the area until Coopertown can provide law enforcement.
The department has had 10 chiefs in 11 years.
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