Tarrant Mayor Wayman Newton has suspended the city’s police chief for a second time in six months.

Newton said he is investigating actions by the chief leading up to Friday’s shootout on Interstate 59 in Birmingham, and his inaction in pursuing criminal charges in the summer drug overdose death of a toddler.

Chief Wendell Major, who Newton appointed in 2021 to head the city’s police force, said he was notified Saturday that he was on administrative leave following “numerous employee and citizen complaints.”

The chief was placed on leave in April by Newton on allegations that he disobeyed an order by the mayor to release a person arrested on domestic violence without a court order.

Major has previously said the discord between he and the mayor began late last year when Councilman Tommy Bryant was arrested for punching the mayor following another heated meeting.

The altercation between Bryant and Newton, who have been at odds since Wayman was elected as the city’s first Black mayor, happened in the parking lot of Tarrant City Hall.

The Tarrant City Council reinstated Major a week after his April suspension.

Newton in a lengthy court document filed Monday afternoon in Jefferson County’s civil court said that on Oct. 24, 2023, he received a complaint from a public safety dispatcher of gender and racial discrimination against the Tarrant Police Department and complaint of dereliction of duty by Major.

Newton then reassigned all dispatchers -both police and fire – to report to Fire Chief Patrick Bennett.

A memo was sent out Oct. 25 to all involved, and Major was ordered by Newton to cease all direct contact with public safety dispatchers and was ordered to communicate through Sgt. James Hill or the fire chief if he needed to speak with dispatcher.

On Nov. 8, two weeks after the dispatchers were removed from under his supervision, Major removed all public safety dispatchers’ access to the NCI C database.

That database allows law enforcement agencies to enter or search for information about stolen property, missing or wanted persons, domestic violence protection order, get criminal histories and access the national sex offender registry.

That decision, Newton said in his court filing, prevented police from running tags and license numbers, entering stolen vehicles into the system, checking warrants on suspects, “effectively crippling all police activity in the City of Tarrant as no police officers had been trained on accessing NCIC databases.’’

He claimed Major purposely did that on a day that Bennett was out state, and Newton was out of the country.

The magistrate asked Major how to get warrants removed and placed in NCIC if no one in the city had access or training to the databases. Major on Nov. 9 responded that two officers are Alabama Criminal Justice Information System certified and could do so.

The court filing included information from an officer – Officer Crosby – saying that she could only use NCIC to do background checks and had not been trained to input and recall warrants in NCIC.

On Friday, Nov. 10, Officer Crosby responded at 10:59 a.m. to a call of a stolen vehicle in the 2800 block of McDavid Street in Tarrant.

“The victims complained that a group of men entered their vehicle and drove off,’’ court documents state. “The men were alleged to live at the home of Tarrant City Councilor Tracie Threadford, on the same street as the victim.”

The officer completed the report and noted that the “vehicle could not be entered into NCIC due to the dispatchers not having NCIC access.”

“Because Chief Major removed Tarrant dispatchers’ access to NCIC and no officer had been trained on inputting entries into NCIC, the vehicle was not listed as stolen in NCIC,” the complaint states.

On Nov. 10, between 4 p.m. and 4:40 p.m., the stolen car was located inside the city limits and police jurisdiction of a neighboring agency.

“When the victim called the neighboring agency to report the car was spotted, the victim was told by the agency because they could not locate the stolen car in the NCIC database to verify the victim’s statement, they would be required to manually verify all information with the Tarrant Police Department,’’ records state.

“Shortly thereafter, around 4:40 p.m., the stolen vehicle was involved in a shootout (on I-59 in Birmingham) in which four individuals were shot with two being critically injured,’’ the filing states.

“Due to the vehicle not being listed as stolen in NCIC, the responding agency had a protracted response because they could not verify that the vehicle was stolen.”

Several hours after the shooting, Major was ordered by Newton via email and text messages to restore dispatcher access to NCIC.

“As of the filing of this complaint, he has refused to do so,’’ Newton wrote in the complaint. “These actions by Chief Major have put public safety employees of the City of Tarrant in imminent danger.”

Major explained to AL.com Monday that for dispatchers to have access to NCIC, they have to have a signed agreement with ALEA for the Alabama Criminal Justice Information System.

Each agency head, the chief said, has to certify who has access to information under that agreement. Since the dispatchers are no longer under his supervision – at Newton’s direction – he could no longer authorize their access.

“The mayor never took steps for the fire chief to get an agreement with ALEA so they could access it,’’ Major said. “Our police officers still have access because they’ve been through the training.”

“The mayor doesn’t understand how law enforcement works,’’ Major said. “It’s not do as he says, it’s do as the law requires. He needs help.”

The court filing went on to say that “Chief Major has a history of making questionable decisions which potential affects the safety of Tarrant residents, businesses and employees and expose the city to legal liability.”

On July 18, 2023, officers responded to a home in the 2200 block of Old Pinson Valley Highway on an unresponsive 2-year-old. The toddler was home with her mother while the father was at work, the complaint states.

When the father returned home at 3:30 p.m., he found the toddler lifeless, lips were blue while the mother was asleep.

The 2-year-old was pronounced dead upon arrival at Children’s of Alabama.

When asked by Newton if foul play was suspected, Major said, “No, no trauma observed. Awaiting autopsy.”

Major told him the mayor officers found cocaine, fentanyl and other drugs strewn throughout the residence.

Court records say the child’s autopsy report came back positive for fentanyl and cocaine.

“When asked why he is not charging anyone with homicide and/or child endangerment, Major said he was not at liberty to discuss an ongoing investigation,’’ the mayor’s court filing states.

“Chief Major refuses to acknowledge the child death and he has testified under oath and has touted at several public meetings that Tarrant has not had any homicides since has been police chief,” Newton said.

The mayor contends that Major’s alleged inaction in the child death case is vastly different from his handling of a situation in August when officers responded to Etowah Street regarding a dog that was “abandoned and in peril.”

“Chief Major threatened to arrest the GBHS officers for burglary if they entered the home,’’ Newman wrote.

“Chief Major’s actions warrant an investigation by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency,’’ the mayor’s filing states.

Newton is asking the court to enter a preliminary injunction requiring Major to restore dispatcher access to all law enforcement databases he removed them from and to keep Major from accessing or changing any police records, reports or files, pending administrative leave and investigations into his actions.

He also is asking for a preliminary injunction to keep the Tarrant City Council from “interfering with Chief Major’s administrative leave.”

No action has yet been taken on Newton’s injunction request. Circuit Judge Donald Blankenship has asked to be recused from the case because of a family conflict.