The fate of the Hanceville Police Department remains uncertain after the city council on Thursday delayed a vote on the possible ending of the department following a dispatcher’s death, multiple deaths and a grand jury accusation of corruption.

The council voted to meet again to discuss whether to keep a municipal police force at a special called meeting on March 10 at 5 p.m. at Hanceville Civic Center.

The move came after council members heard from many residents at Thursday’s regularly scheduled meeting about the recent indictments of the chief of police, several officers and an officer’s wife.

“This is something that’s going to take some time,” Mayor Jimmy Sawyer said of the decision. “Where do we go from here?….Our number one priority is your safety.”

Councilman Jimmie Nuss called the accusations “a big shock.”

“I hate what happened,” Nuss said. “We’re going to take our time and do what’s right.”

Councilwoman Patty Dean-Tucker took issue with how the indictments were announced. “There was a better way to do it….They don’t know our city,” she said of the grand jury.

“Trust has been broken,” said Mayor Pro Tem Kim Brown. “We have to do what’s best for all of you.”

“We’ve got to fix what’s here for now the masses,” said City Councilman Kenneth Cornelius.

Former Mayor Katie Whitley, who was in office from 2004-2008, said after the meeting the police department should not be reinstated until there’s a new mayor and new council to choose a new police chief.

“There’s no leadership here,” Whitley said. “It’s all their fault.”

City Clerk Tania Wilcox, a 20-year-employee of Hanceville, said trouble had been building a long time before the death of dispatcher Chris Willingham on Aug. 23, 2024.

“Help was requested five months before the death of the dispatcher,” Wilcox said. She said police employees tried to cover up crimes such as unauthorized access to drugs in the evidence room and threatened anyone who tried to expose it.

“I had my life threatened,” Wilcox said. “I was fooled by many officers for many years.”

City Clerk Tania Wilcox spoke after many residents addressed the council.

“I have had my life threatened” over what what was happening in the the police department, Wilcox said. “I thought they were good people until I knew they were breaking the law.”

After the Aug. 23, 2024 drug overdose death of a dispatcher in his office, the State Bureau of Investigation conducted an investigation and a grand jury was convened.

The grand jury said the department operated under “a rampant culture of corruption” and should be abolished.

The allegations against the arrested officers include on-duty drug injections, misuse of criminal databases and distribution of controlled substances to each other and to others, according to the indictments.

Hanceville’s police chief, 51-year-old Jason Marlin, is charged along with Officers Cody Alan Kelso, 33, Drew Shelnutt, 39, Jason Wilbanks, 37, Eric Michael Kelso, 44, and his wife, 63-year-old Donna Kelso.

They surrendered to the Cullman County Jail and were released on bond.

When the problems began is not yet clear, although court records state the crimes the officers are accused of date back to at least March 1, 2024 and continued through Aug. 23, 2024 — the day Willingham died.

Cullman County deputy sheriffs are handling law enforcement in the town as all Hanceville officers were placed on administrative leave.

This is a developing story and will be updated.