November 20, 2024
By: Dwayne Page
She’s back!
During Tuesday night’s regular monthly meeting of the Alexandria Mayor and Aldermen, the council voted to re-hire Veronica Dodge as a full-time police officer at the request of Chief Kenneth (K.D.) Smith.
Officer Dodge and her husband and child reside in Sparta where she has worked for the White County Sheriff’s Department.
Dodge was first hired in September but she resigned shortly thereafter regarding some issues with White County and the POST Commission which have since been resolved.
With the addition of Officer Dodge, Chief Smith said the Alexandria Police Department is currently made up of three full time officers, two part time, and two reserve officers.
In making his request to hire Officer Dodge, Chief Smith informed the aldermen that “The previous police department and the one before that had three full time and three part time officers. Our budget supports bringing on another full-time officer. That would allow me to put (Dodge) and Max Goodpasture on a 12-hour rotation with someone here through the week from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. and on weekends from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. We can’t afford to do 24/7,” said Chief Smith.
“She (Officer Dodge) said she wanted to do some refresher training which I would want her to go through myself to make sure she is comfortable before I put her out there by herself. Hers was the only application I had and that’s because the city doesn’t offer any benefits. I would ask the board to hire her on full time. After a couple of weeks of training, she should be good to go,” said Chief Smith.