Mobile Police Chief Paul Prine responds to Kenyen Brown report
MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — The City of Mobile released the highly anticipated report from former U.S. Attorney Kenyen Brown on the use of force and policies within the Mobile Police Department Tuesday evening.
In that report, different use of force cases are broken down and examined in extreme detail but so is the leadership within the department. Mobile Police Chief Paul Prine was appointed chief in 2021 by Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson but two weeks ago, Prine was placed on administrative leave pending the results of this report.
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“But unfortunately, we’re here,” Prine said. “I think it’s disingenuous to the Black community because what they did was used a very Black, prominent person to come in and tell the Black community how racist the police department is and shame on the administration for doing that.”
The report states that in interviews with the Mobile Police Chief Paul Prine’s leadership, policies and training were questioned. In the report, Prine relayed that “attitude is everything” and that his officers must have a “teachable spirit.”
Prine was questioned about the police department’s use of profanity.
He said that he categorized the use of profanity into three categories: malicious, intentional and incidental. The report defined Prine’s views on profanity on a “sliding scale.”
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The report also goes into detail about Prine’s alleged comment to “F*** the public”.
According to the report, three interviews were conducted with three officers who all heard Prine make the comment.
In an open roll call two years ago, officers said they believed that Prine was trying to form companionship with the line of officers. That message was not perceived by other officers who instead believed that it made officers believe it was OK to be disrespectful to the public.
For at least two months after the comment was made it became a running joke in the department where officers would say “According to the Chief, F*** the public.”
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At the end of the report, they acknowledged that Prine was placed on administrative leave. The report describes his recent efforts to discredit the report’s integrity as an example of his autocratic tendencies.
“Mr. Brown is right; I do have an autocratic leadership,” Prine said. “Not in its true definition, where I make the decisions in respect to what the police department’s policies are. I do lead in an autocratic leadership in that we have long-standing rules and regulations in the department.”
The Mobile City Council will vote in the next city council meeting on Prine’s termination and how they will investigate the claims Prine has made regarding the city.
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