In February, elected leaders of a small town in Marion County took the extraordinary step of firing its top cop amid a series of troubling allegations.

Gervais Police Chief Mark Chase’s removal has since touched off a feud between the chief’s defenders and officials in the quiet community about 15 miles NE of Salem.

Chase, it turns out, is no stranger to controversy on the job. Leaders in Junction City, about an hour south of Gervais, fired Chase from his role as police chief there in 2016.

On the latest Beat Check, Oregonian/OregonLive reporters Shane Dixon Kavanaugh and Catalina Gaitán talk about small town politics in the age of toxic divides.

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