Tiltonsville Village Council members received a surprise when three officers turned in their resignations on Tuesday night.

This follows the resignation of the police chief and cuts the six-person department in half.

Tiltonsville Mayor Jerry Vinci's explanation of Chief Jerry Davis' resignation was simple.

"There was a disagreement between myself and the police chief over a code administrator job and I did not know he was going to resign," said Vinci. "He turned in his resignation for no other reason other than he found another job."

But, Davis' wife is telling a different story. "Jerry truly loved serving this town and its residents, but he couldn't knowingly work for someone who doesn't treat people fairly or someone he doesn't trust," said Tammy Davis.

It was Tammy Davis' story that seemed to stick with three of his officers, who turned in their badges and resignations.

"Of course we weren't doing it for the money, we love our jobs," said Chase Watts, a former Tiltonsville patrolman. "It's just administrative or more or less how we are being treated and a lot of things that we needed to work as a police department."

The resignations sparked quite a debate among the council, who also seemed to be divided about exactly what caused the issues between the mayor and the police chief and how they all failed to communicate.

"A policeman's responsibility is to take care of the village he swears to protect," said Vinci. "Obviously, that's not the case here."

For residents in Tiltonsville the concern now turns toward the depleted department.

"I'm concerned because we have a 24-hour police protection and when you have a good chief in there, you want to keep a good chief, bottom line," said Brandon Staats, resident.

Council tabled Davis' resignation because they still would like to discuss it with him, so his resignation isn't official. But, council did approve the resignations of the other officers.

Mayor Vinci says that the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office has agreed to cover the town when there isn't an officer on duty.