VALLEY MILLS, Texas — The Valley Mills Police Department (VMPD) is reportedly changing some of its policies after an incident involving an officer and the chief of the Valley Mills Volunteer Fire Department (VMVFD), according to an After Action Review Report from Police Chief Kelli Fikac.
According to the report, Police Officer Martin was the on-call officer on Sunday, May 5, when the city experienced flooding. Martin was reportedly scheduled to begin shift at 3 p.m. and received a direct call from a VMVFD member at 4:12 a.m.
The VMVFD member reportedly told Martin they "need barricades out here" and provided no other information. Fikac said Martin was a member of the VMVFD at the time, and checked the VMVFD page notification, seeing that there was a Fire Department page out for a house fire outside the city limits.
Martin reportedly assumed the barricades were for the house fire, and "determined the request was for a need outside the jurisdiction of Valley Mills," Fikac said. "No contradictive information was provided to Martin at that time."
At 6:28 a.m., the report states a Valley Mills citizen called VMPD saying that the roadways were flooded. Martin reportedly contacted Sgt. Williams and both responded to "assess the reported flooding".
At 7:04 a.m., Martin reportedly received a call from dispatch requesting that he assist the VMVFD with flooding at the bridge on Highway 6 at CR 3310. While going to assist, Martin was allegedly unable to get to the scene because Highway 6 was completely flooded at the Youth Baseball Complex.
Fikac said she was away at mandatory training at the time but received a call from Williams advising about the flooding in the 100 block of N. 4th and the 100 block of Avenue C.
Fikac said she advised Williams to have city barricades placed at both locations, monitor each location frequently and handle calls as they came in. Fikac said she advised Willaims to update her with any developments so that they could be posted to the public on the VMVFD Facebook page.
Fikac said she contacted Valley Mills Mayor Ray Bickerstaff to see if she needed to return to help with the situation, but was instructed not to return, with Bickerstaff saying it was "not necessary".
According to the report, after the barricades were placed, Williams contacted Fikac saying that during the incident, the Valley Mills Volunteer Fire Chief became "confrontational" and when asked why, said "It has been brewing for a while".
Fikac reportedly told Williams to remain professional and said she would conduct an after action review when she returned to determine "what, if any changes needed to be made" by the agency.
Fikac said in the report the VMPD "has and will continue to respond and assist with emergency calls located outside the city limits when an officer is on duty at the time." When an officer is on call and no officer is on duty at the time, each event will be evaluated for priority response due to the fact that the VMFD is not a registered 24/7 agency, said Fikac.
Fikac stated in the report that she conducted an "in-depth review of body camera footage and all documentation surrounding the flooding event" when she returned from training. Fikac stated that VMVFD had been paged out at 2:38 a.m. to a house fire outside the Valley Mills city limits.
According to the report, VMPD does not have access to the VMVFD paging notification system because Volunteer Fire Chief David Fisk "chose to remove police access" over two years prior, "due to his disdain of the former chief of police".
Fikac said even after the "separation of the former chief from the City", Fisk decided to continue to prohibit VMPD from VMVFD paging access.
Fikac's report also stated VMVFD was not paged or dispatched to the flooding event because they were already out on the fire scene from earlier and their response was "self-initiated.
The report stated that based on the body camera footage, the "confrontation" with the volunteer fire chief started when Williams stated that, per his chief, they were not to post at the barricades, saying that if they received a major call, they would have to leave.
According to the report, the fire chief responded with "What the f*** do you think we're supposed to do?" Williams tried to de-escalate the situation, according to the report, while the fire chief allegedly said things such as "We don't get a paycheck, y'all do" and "Go home, nobody asked y'all to get here anyway".
Fikac's report stated the fire chief said that when the mayor asked if police needed to be there, he told the mayor he "did not want PD there". He also reportedly told Martin to "Turn in your s***," essentially firing him as a volunteer with the VMVFD, according to the report.
Fikac stated the next day, she "misunderstood a report" about a roadway being reopened and made a post on social media. Fikac said the information was corrected "within minutes", but the volunteer fire chief called Williams and "began to berate him over the post."
According to Fikac, the VMPD is staffed by one chief of police, one patrol officer and one police cadet who is currently in basic police academy, with two special reserve officers utilized as "detectives and special resources".
Fikac said the sergeant and officer "followed the agency standard operating procedure for Emergency Mobilization immediately upon notification of the flooding event" and "also followed the agency standard operating procedure for adverse weather response and notification to the chain of command."
Fikac listed multiple key improvements identified in the report:
1. VMPD members should have access to the VMVFD paging system, just as VMPD has granted access of the VMPD police channel to the VMVFD.
2. VMPD will obtain and deploy the “Everbridge” reverse 911 application to expand public notification of emergency warnings.
3. No Incident Command was established, as required and as protocol suggests in the NIMS (National Incident Management System), which is adopted by Bosque County and the City of Valley Mills. Because no command post was established, conflict ensued.
4. Attempt to improve communications and training with the VMVFD, specifically with the Volunteer Fire Chief, as there has been no other previous conflicts with any other ranking VFD member.
5. Assist City Officials in creating standard operating procedures for their staff for emergency response and essential NIMS training.
6. The City Mayor, also registered with the State of Texas as the City Emergency Management Coordinator, should not be subordinate to the Volunteer Fire Chief. Additionally, no member of the VMPD should be subordinate to the Volunteer Fire Chief as was Ofc. Martin as a VMVFD volunteer.
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