Georgia mayor who fired town’s entire police force resigns, citing family ‘health concerns’

The mayor of a small town in the US state of Georgia has resigned shortly after firing his community’s entire police department, a step that the local governing council ultimately reversed – but that he nonetheless took amid a political spat pitting him and his wife against members of the force. In a 15 May resignation letter that the Guardian reviewed, Ron Shinnick avoided mentioning his attempted termination of the Cohutta police department, word of which gained international media attention. The letter instead said Shinnick had opted to vacate the mayoral post he had held since 2014 due to “health concerns” faced by family members outside Cohutta. “This decision was not made lightly,” Shinnick wrote in his resignation letter, to which he assigned immediate effect. “But I believe it is in the best interest of both the town and myself at this time.” Shinnick, 70, had dismissed Cohutta’s police chief and 10 officers by 6 May. A sign posted in the town of roughly 930 people announced the dissolution of its police department and advised anyone in need of help to call a non-emergency county government telephone number. Later, Shinnick said he acted against the police department over some comments that officers made on social media. A police sergeant maintained the matter involved a complaint officers had raised about Shinnick’s wife, Pam, who had served as the town’s clerk before being fired in January. …