Fired Fort Valley police chief was ‘very top-heavy,’ mayor claims

The mayor of Fort Valley, a rural Middle Georgia town with a police force of around three dozen, said she recently fired the city’s police chief because, she alleges, he emotionally abused officers, promoted them without pay raises and spent city money without proper approval.

Fort Valley City Council members did not corroborate Mayor Shakeena Reeves’ allegations against Dennis John “DJ” Flores, the former police chief.

Reeves called Flores’ leadership “very top-heavy.”

“The officers were being emotionally abused,” she claimed to The Telegraph. “They were being followed, recorded, some even had trackers put on their cars.”

Interim Police Chief David Wilson did not mention issues other than people supposedly being underpaid when Flores was the chief. Wilson said during a meeting with the mayor, council and city departments Monday — his second day in charge of the Fort Valley Police Department — that he was working to remedy any issues.

Wilson claimed that Flores had promised higher pay to three or four officers he promoted, “but none of them got their pay raises.” The promotions happened within the past six weeks, around the time Reeves took office Jan. 3, Wilson told The Telegraph.

But Flores never asked the City Council for approval, according to Reeves and council members Juanita Bryant and Laronda Eason.

“I’m actively working on that today to get that rectified,” Wilson told the council.

Reeves also accused Flores of making non-essential purchases using public safety monies on “aesthetics (like) $200 big hats,” she said.

“If an officer wants those things, the officer should invest in them themselves, personally,” Reeves said. “Because we do have a lot of officers who invest in jackets with the names and different things like that, but they do it with their personal money, not city money.”

Council member Eason, who also serves as the city’s finance chair, and Gary Lee, the former city administrator who resigned Feb. 3, approved many of those purchases, according to Reeves. The mayor is expected to sign off on most city purchases, according to Fort Valley’s municipal code.

“Whoever is signing a check for this should be asking, ‘OK now, what is this? Why is this?’” Reeves said. “Especially knowing the financial strain that we are in.”

Yet Eason told The Telegraph she “had no idea” what led to the firings.

Lee resigned when Reeves warned him of possible termination for alleged financial mishandling.

The Telegraph was unable to contact Lee, Flores and then-assistant police chief Michael Bostic, who was also fired. The Telegraph has requested but not yet received public records related to the police department’s purchases and actions.

“It was a long time coming,” Reeves said of the firings.