FLORENCE ? The city council in this central Kansas town has decided to suspend its police chief without pay amid allegations that he improperly touched several women.

The council’s decision Monday night came three days after the Marion County Sheriff’s Department arrested Police Chief Merlin Stout on suspicion of improperly touching a woman without her consent at a restaurant. Stout was released Saturday on $1,500 bond.

As of Monday, Stout had not been formally charged.

Florence Mayor John Lehman said Stout, hired in November, had been a good officer.

“He’s done a good job for us so far,” he said.

Since Friday’s arrest, Sheriff Lee Becker said his office has received at least 10 different leads concerning other incidents of inappropriate behavior involving Stout.

At Monday night’s meeting, Ben Brunson, manager of Johnson’s General Store in Florence, said Stout intimidated and threatened the female employees at his store. He said he had notified at least one council member about Stout’s inappropriate behavior in the past month.

“These were very real situations,” Brunson said. “There was no falseness to this at all.”

Lehman said he had heard some complaints about Stout, but nothing of a serious nature.

“What I heard was quite different than what was written up,” Lehman said.

Stout previously lived in Morton County in western Kansas, where he served as a county commissioner and before that as sheriff. He ran unsuccessfully last year for re-election to his commission seat.

Because Stout had been out of law enforcement for several years, Becker said he wasn’t certified by the state to serve as police chief. But Stout has until November 2004 to become certified.

Council member Randy Mills said the city was not immediately looking for a replacement for Stout, the town’s only police officer. Officials said the Marion County Sheriff’s Department would continue to serve Florence’s law enforcement needs, just as it had before the city hired Stout.

Florence has a population of just over 600 people, and is about 50 miles northeast of Wichita.