Beloit Police Approve No-Confidence Vote In Department Leaders

Police officers in Beloit have made it clear that they support the city’s recent decision to suspend police chief Norm Jacobs and his assistant Tom Dunkin by overwhelmingly approving a no-confidence vote in their two supervisors.

Jim Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, released the results of the vote Monday. He said it’s not an action the statewide union normally endorses, but that in this case, officers felt the chief was preventing them from protecting public safety at a time when homicides in the city were on the rise.

“You had officers who desperately wanted to do the job that they were trained to do and engage in more proactive policing strategies, and it was made very clear to them that that kind of activity on their part was simply not welcome and not allowed,” Palmer said.

Robert Mihelich, an attorney for the chief and deputy chief, told the Janesville Gazette the accusations are unfounded and said union members haven’t filed any grievances recently to support their claims.