The entire police force of a North Carolina town quit not long after a Black woman was hired as their new city manager.
The entire police department of Kenly, North Carolina resigned citing a 'hostile work environment' just two months after Justine Jones started her new role, CNN reports. Jones was hired by the town of Kenly after 16 years worth of experience in local government.
The officer's resignations take effect next week, meaning every member of the police quits and leaves the small town of 1,500 residents without a force.
Police chief Josh Gibson, four full time officers, one part time officer and two clerks have submitted their letters of resignation, which do not directly blame Jones or go into detail about the 'hostile' environment.
Jones declined to comment on police resignations, while Kenly town council released a statement saying: "The prudent course of action is to find out what happened and not make any rash decisions."
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In an interview with Fox News, Chief Gibson alleged that Jones had written him up several times in the short time since taking on her new job.
He said: "She came in, first of all, to start giving us tasks and all these projects all the time.
"And unfortunately we only have five officers and I was working double shifts at the time to try to keep up officer safety and be there with the officers in case something happened.
"She wrote me up for going to businesses and talking with businesses. She wrote me up for talking with council members I've known for 20 years."
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Once the resignations take effect an external investigation will be launched to determine exactly what happened and why the entire police force quit.
Kenly town residents are split over whether the entire police force walking out is a race issue as they are all white and Jones is Black.
Kenly resident Britney Hinnant told CNN she believes it is connected to race, suggesting the officers 'don't want a Black woman over top of them' or 'telling them what to do'.
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She said she didn't think the police department supported Black people and claimed they harassed Black residents.
However, some other residents don't think it's 'a Black vs white thing', as local business owner Joy Wright said the last town manager was a Black man, and said she'd 'never seen that being a problem'.
Members of the Johnston County Sheriff's Office will be posted to the town to cover for the resigning police officers.
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Joe Harker