by John Dowd
“The town is never going to be able to replace Mac Sosa,” said Stevensville Mayor, Steve Gibson, about the departing Stevensville Police Chief. The town, and the police department, are saddened to see their chief moving back to Texas, explained Gibson. However, Sosa attributed the move to a couple of things. The first was that he has had several friends pass away in the line of duty recently, and to whom he has been unable to pay his respects. The second was a homesick wife. Though she and Sosa have family in the area, they have decided to return home, north of Houston, Texas.
In an interview with Sosa, he wanted to express his thoughts on leaving. Addressing the community, he said, “It’s been a privilege. Thank you for giving me the chance to lead this department. Thank you for opening your doors and giving me the information to guide them into being the type of agency they wanted to be.”
Sosa will be leaving a void that, as the mayor explained, will be difficult to fill. Gibson was adamant that Sosa will be leaving behind a profoundly positive impact on the community. He specifically cited Sosa’s constant efforts to build the relationship and trust there is now between the community and the police department.
Sosa will remain in office until the end of August. He hopes to have by then completed several tasks. The first is to train the new officers that have recently been brought on to the department. According to Gibson, this is the first time he has seen the department, though temporarily, fully staffed. The second is to help finish the remodel at town hall, which will create a space for the police department to move back into. This project has been done by police officers on their own time, and these renovations will save the town over $12,000 a year, according to Gibson. The last is to hopefully train the new chief. There is already a candidate for that position, from within the Stevensville Police Department.
On Friday morning, July 14, the town asked several prominent members of the community to come out for a special meeting at town hall. The purpose of the meeting was to allow the public to voice questions and concerns to the candidate seeking to become the new chief.
“We thought it would be good to have people from the community involved,” said Gibson and Sosa, who were both present at the meeting. So far, they have tried to include community members more, and plan to do so for future hires. The community members invited included Tony Nagendran, manager of the Lonesome Dove bar, Jessica Shourd, the Stevensville K-3 Principal and Jon Vercruyssen, owner and manager of CJ’s Den.
When the meeting commenced, each person was introduced, as well as the candidate. Todd Schafer, the candidate, is the current Sergeant at the Stevensville Police Department, as well as the Stevensville School Resource Officer (SRO). He is a retired Marine and member of the National Guard.
The first to start was Vercruyssen, who brought up that, prior to Sosa, there was a great disconnect between the community and the department. He also mentioned the lengths that Sosa took to remedy that. He explained that the community now expects the same openness and that the new chief work as hard to become part of the community. “That is extremely important for a small town,” said Vercruyssen.
The next to speak was Nagendran, who added to what was said before, explaining, “I hope you carry on what he (Sosa) has done and also bring your own self into it.” That concern was echoed by Shourd. However, “Kids are the most important to me,” explained the principal. She continued, saying that she hopes her concerns and reports, among those of other citizens, are taken seriously and acted upon to the department’s best abilities. She noted that things have been that way since Sosa took office, and since Schafer had been SRO. She added that since Schafer has been there, many youth have felt they can go up to him and talk. She hopes this continues with the new SRO.
When all was said, Schafer was allowed to speak to the concerns. Moving from a large department, Schafer explained his connection to the area, and his time serving with Sosa. His kids go to school in Stevensville and his wife is now a teacher there. Schafer explained that he came on with the Stevensville department because his mindset on policing lined up well with Sosa’s. “It is important to be one with the community, and not just police it,” said Schafer.
Schafer became an officer because of his relationship with his SRO as a youth. He expanded on that, explaining that, “Kids don’t have a voice in the legal system, so I try to give them one.”
Schafer plans on utilizing funds from future police events for the community, like the National Night Out and the Chili Cook-off, to put security cameras and other measures into the Lewis and Clark Park. He explained that it is a popular community and family site that also sees crime. He has had several adults and youth mention to him the area’s importance, “including young kids and even skateboarders,” he noted.
This message resonated with Shourd, who then explained the importance of reaching parents, especially to help protect kids from “stuff affecting parents and the way they parent,” referring to drugs and alcohol. Schafer’s answer to this was that the biggest key to doing anything about anything is information. The more the officers know, the more they can do something about it. To him, the key to achieving this goes back to the “relationship between the police and the community.”
Schafer ended, requesting, “If you have an issue, come let us know. Especially if it is an officer.” He emphasized that if the issue was originating from an officer, “If we can’t police ourselves, how can we police the community?”
With preliminary interviews completed, the application will be sent to the State Police Commission and then it will come back to the Town Council for the final decision. If this is completed soon, as the department is hoping, Schafer will be put into a training position under Sosa, until the current chief’s departure at the end of August.