Lake Park Police Chief Tim Baker Gets Demoted to Patrolman

Lake Park Police Chief Gets Demoted to Patrolman

– Lake Park, Ga. — March 14, 2013 –

Lake Park Police Chief Tim Baker was demoted on Saturday to Patrolman by the City Council. Lake Park’s Mayor says he wasn’t submitting monthly crime reports to the state that help Georgia tally statistics.

Lake Park’s Mayor, Eric Schindler, said “these are reports that are mandated by the state. These are reports that need to be filed and it just simply wasn’t being done. The council, as far as I’m concerned, was kept in the dark.”

But the city’s former mayor Ben Fetch says it’s personal.  he said “it’s my belief that Tim was dismissed from Lake Park or demoted as it ended up because there was a certain group on the mayor council that just wanted to get rid of him.”

Baker was appointed the Chief of Police in January of 2012. He filled the shoes of the former police Chief Burt Rutland who had been dismissed.

Because of the Lake Park Police department’s ongoing problems, many residents think there’s a different solution.

Lake Park resident Sandra Henderson said “under Valdosta’s umbrella would be marvelous. For education, for safety, for guidance and any other resources they have.”

Another resident said “it’d be fine to have everybody under the same tent.”

Lake Park has roughly seven hundred citizens and all of its borders fall within Lowndes County.

Lake Park is currently accepting applications for a new police chief. The deadline is April 15th.