The entire Barrackville Police Department ceased to exist this week after the mayor and town council fired every remaining officer, a move that came just days after the police chief resigned over what he called unlawful interference by elected officials, and hours after the department's acting commander accused council members of breaking into the evidence room.
Barrackville, a small town of roughly 1,200 people in north-central West Virginia, now has no sworn law enforcement of its own. The Marion County Sheriff's Office will handle calls in the area, as it does elsewhere across the county. But for residents who rallied behind their chief and signed a petition demanding his reinstatement, the speed and silence of the council's actions have raised more questions than they have answered.
Zachary Freeburn was appointed Barrackville's full-time police chief in December 2025. A graduate of the West Virginia State Police Academy with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and an advanced Drug Recognition Expert certification, Freeburn arrived with credentials that a department in a town this size rarely attracts. The department's own announcement at the time struck an optimistic note, as Fox News Digital reported:
"We look forward to continuing to rebuild and strengthen our department to better serve our community, and we are excited to once again have a full-time officer leading our agency."
That optimism lasted less than seven months. Freeburn resigned effective immediately last week, and his departure set off a chain of events that left the town with no police force at all.
In a letter he shared with local outlet WBOY, one he had intended to read aloud at a July 7 town council meeting, Freeburn laid out his reasons. He wrote that shortly after the newly elected town council took office, he was called into a closed-door meeting and told a council member would directly supervise the police department and implement operational changes. Freeburn objected, writing that he believed those directives violated West Virginia law governing municipal police departments.
He quoted a council member as telling him directly:
"If I give you a directive you follow it... I am in charge and what I say goes."
Freeburn described the situation as one that would create a hostile work environment. He wrote that one of the biggest complaints he had heard from residents was a lack of transparency at town hall, and said he chose to resign so the issues could be brought into the open. He expressed hope that residents would finally receive "the transparency that they have been asking for."
With Freeburn gone, the department designated Sgt. David Hunt as officer in charge. Newsmax reported that Hunt and one other unnamed officer were the only two sworn members left on the force, the entire department.
That arrangement lasted barely a week. On Tuesday morning, Hunt arrived at the department and discovered that the police evidence room had allegedly been entered. He brought the accusation directly to Mayor Tom Straight and members of the town council during a meeting. Hunt alleged that Councilmember Alex Neville acknowledged taking a set of police keys.
Hunt was immediately relieved of duty. So was the one other remaining officer.
The Barrackville Police Department posted the news on Facebook:
"Effective immediately, the entire Barrackville Police Department has been relieved of duty by the Mayor and City Council. We are sincerely grateful for the support, trust, and encouragement shown to us by the Barrackville community throughout our service. It has been an honor and a privilege to serve and protect this town."
Hunt told WBOY that he intends to seek whistleblower protections. Whether he has formally filed remains unclear.
The July 7 town council meeting, the same one where Freeburn's letter was supposed to be read, and where residents organized through a petition had planned to show up and demand answers, was canceled. The council posted on Facebook that the meeting was scrapped because of "a lack of sufficient information regarding items listed under unfinished business."
That explanation landed poorly with a community already suspicious of its elected leadership. Residents had launched an online petition on MoveOn.org calling for Freeburn's reinstatement. The petition argued he had been "forced to resign due to what many residents believe was unnecessary overreach by the newly elected Town Council" and praised his brief tenure:
"Our Police Chief quickly earned the trust, respect, and appreciation of our community through his professionalism, leadership, integrity, and commitment to keeping Barrackville safe. Although his time serving our town was brief, his impact was undeniable."
The petition urged town leaders to reconsider the circumstances of the resignation, restore public confidence through transparency, and reinstate Freeburn.
Fox News Digital contacted the Barrackville Police Department, Mayor Straight, members of the town council, the Marion County Sheriff's Office, and the West Virginia Municipal League for comment. No responses were noted.
Barrackville sits about 25 miles southwest of Morgantown in Marion County. It is the kind of small town where residents know their officers by name, and where losing a police department entirely is not an abstraction. It means longer response times, less local presence, and reliance on a county sheriff's office that covers a wide jurisdiction.
Marion County Sheriff Roger Cunningham previously told WBOY that his office will continue responding to calls in Barrackville, as it routinely does throughout the county. That provides a baseline of coverage. But it is not a substitute for a local department, and residents know it.
One resident, Isabella Pham, captured the frustration in comments reported by the New York Post:
"I just think that the town right now is in a little bit of a mess. We've gone through a lot of different people, and I'm just hoping that at the end of this, we can get a little bit of stability, transparency and security."
Beneath the police department's Facebook announcement, other residents voiced sharper concerns. One wrote: "Time to do some deep background on the city council. The truth is not being told." Another asked: "Who is gonna look over the 5 residents in Barrackville now?"
The list of open questions is long, and the silence from town officials only makes it longer. Neither Mayor Straight nor Councilmember Neville has publicly addressed Hunt's allegation about the evidence room entry. Neville has not confirmed or denied taking police keys beyond what Hunt described from the meeting. No one on the council has explained why the officers were fired rather than reassigned, placed on leave, or given any process at all.
The specific West Virginia statutes Freeburn believed the council was violating have not been identified publicly. The West Virginia Municipal League, the body best positioned to clarify what authority municipal councils actually hold over police operations, did not respond to Fox News Digital's inquiry. Whether Hunt's evidence room allegation has been referred to any outside law enforcement agency for investigation is unknown.
And the town council meeting where residents were supposed to get answers? Canceled.
Small-town politics can produce petty feuds. But this sequence, a qualified chief hired to rebuild a department, pushed out by council members who allegedly demanded personal control over police operations, followed by the firing of every remaining officer the moment one of them raised an alarm about evidence room integrity, does not look like a routine personnel dispute. It looks like a council that wanted control of the police department, got rid of anyone who objected, and then shut down the public forum where residents were prepared to ask why.
Freeburn wrote in his letter that he resigned so the issues could be brought into the open. The council's response was to fire the remaining officers, cancel the public meeting, and go silent. That is not transparency. That is the opposite.
When elected officials fire the cops for asking uncomfortable questions and then refuse to face the public, the residents of Barrackville are right to wonder who exactly is being protected, and from what.
