The Blythe Police Department has been left without a force after Chief Leondus Dixon and two officers resigned this week.
The resignations triggered an emergency city council meeting on Thursday, where former Hephzibah Police Chief Dwayne Flowers was appointed as interim chief while the city seeks to rebuild its police department.
Chief Dixon, 40, explained that he was offered a “lucrative” job by Burke County Sheriff Alfonzo Williams, which he couldn’t turn down.
“Nobody run me off. Nobody upset me. I didn’t even go looking for the job. They came to me,” he said.
Dixon will become the captain of BCSO road patrol, and Blythe Officer Lerante Benjamin will join him as a road patrol sergeant. Blythe Officer Thomas Ray, meanwhile, accepted an offer to join the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office under Sheriff Eugene “Gino Rock” Brantley. The chief said he only found out about Ray’s plan to resign when he told the officer about his own decision.
Dixon, who expressed his deep commitment to Blythe, clarified that his decision had nothing to do with dissatisfaction with the city. He said he did ask city officials whether they could discuss his salary and was told no.
“The offer that I was given (for Burke County) was a financial no-brainer,” Dixon said Thursday night. “The sheriff made me an offer, and as far as career-wise, I felt like it was a better move. It had nothing to do with the city. … I love that city with everything in me. I have given my all to that city. And it was not a decision that I took lightly.”
The emergency council meeting was charged with tension, as Blythe resident John Morris noted in a Facebook post. Initially, the council sought to withhold pay for the officers until their final day, but the mayor and city attorney clarified that the officers were entitled to pay through their resignation date. After legal consultation, the council agreed to pay the officers until their last official day, with Chief Dixon’s service ending by Monday.
An interim chief will begin on Monday, and neighboring agencies have agreed to provide temporary officers to cover shifts.
Morris, who attended the meeting, expressed frustration over the council’s hostile attitude, suggesting that there were deeper issues at play. Despite the tension, Morris ended his post by thanking the officers for their service to Blythe.
