The Alliance City Council has set aside a half-hour at its regular meeting tonight to hear concerns from a half-dozen residents about newly-hired Police Chief David Leavitt, who is scheduled to begin work by early next month.
Leavitt retired in 2021 from the Metro Nashville, TN, Police Department as a lieutenant, but had been demoted from captain following a sexual harassment investigation that resulted in a finding of Conduct Unbecoming an Officers.
Social media accounts of the demotion and Leavitt’s being one of the officers cited in a story on disparities in discipline of officers in the Metro Nashville department quickly spread in Alliance after his hiring.
Some have questioned his selection because of the investigations while others have taken issue with Leavitt’s being gay and having been involved in assignments in Nashville that included work with the LGBTIQA+ community.
Some social media postings since then have called for rescinding Leavitt’s hiring and for City Manager Seth Sorensen to be fired with still others calling for council members to be “held accountable” too.
Sorensen said in a press release that Leavitt had disclosed the allegations and disciplinary actions during the interview process and that the city’s consulting firm had thoroughly vetted Leavitt and spoken with “relevant witnesses” involved in the investigation by the Nashville department’s Office of Professional Accountability.
In a lengthy interview with the Scottsbluff Star Herald, Leavitt called the Nashville investigations a “witch hunt” spurred by a complaint from a female officer he had previously been involved in disciplining for her violation of conduct standards.
Leavitt told the paper he’d “owned” any disciplinary actions against him in the past and focused on learning from his mistakes, but not this time. He also said he didn’t appeal despite being certain he would win because it would have been expensive, time-consuming, and ”2 years of hell, 2 years of stress”
As for coming to Alliance, Leavitt told the paper he’s pragmatic and knows he’ll never convince some residents to accept him – some because he’s from out-of-state and some because he’s gay, but hopes he’ll earn the trust and approval of most residents.
Although he spent more than 25 years in Nashville as an EMT and police officer, Leavitt grew up in a small community in New York state and says working at a smaller department has always been kind of a dream” because he can be more hands-on, interact with the community more, and really know all his officers.