Hiram Police Chief Resigns Amid Investigation

HIRAM, GA — Hiram Police Chief Vande Zande has turned in his resignation letter to the City of Hiram while an investigation into the police department has already cost the city nearly $10,000, according to a Channel 2 Action News report.

The police chief's resignation letter reads, in part, "The purpose of this letter is to inform you and the city manager of my desire to resign as chief of police, effective April 16th, 2018. In providing you with this notice at the beginning of your Executive Session, I am hoping to eliminate the need to discuss in any detail the findings of [the investigator's] report as they relate to his opinions of my performance and qualifications to serve as your chief. Opinions, offered by a man whose professional ethics and integrity are certainly questionable, misrepresent what I know to be true about the work that's been done here under my tenure as chief."

During Tuesday's City Council meeting, Mayor Teresa Philyaw the probe into the police department has cost over $10,000 in taxpayer money, but it wasn’t so much about Zande, but more about what was going on inside the department, according to the news report.

"We were being told that morale was so low and of course saw officers leaving and that became a big concern,” Philyaw said, according to Channel 2 Action News.

For more details, see the Channel 2 Action News report.

Photo courtesy City of Hiram