Police Chief Roddy Said He Wants To See Officers Interacting With The Public Other Than Arrests

  • Tuesday, January 28, 2020
  • Joseph Dycus

Chattanooga Police Department Chief David Roddy’s presentation to the City Council on Tuesday painted a picture of an improving law enforcement agency that still has room to improve. He emphasized the need for law enforcement to be out in the community, doing things other than enforcing the law.

“That police presence is not your typical police presence,” said Chief Roddy on the department’s plans to increase police presence as weather becomes warmer. “It’s not pull cars over, and be visible and have your blue lights on. It’s figure out an event to go to, to step out of the car and engage with the community. It’s police presence in every facet of what police presence could look like.”

A few of the council members brought up the new car laws, which forbid Tennessee drivers from touching their phones while driving. Councilman Darrin Ledford pointed out that as he drives around the highways, it almost seems as if the new law was never passed.

“I don’t think a lot of people get the message,” said Councilman Ledford, “and I look around and everyone is on the phone going down 24. How can we, as a city, get the word out that it’s against the law?”

Chief Roddy did not disagree, admitting that distracted drivers are still a huge issue around Chattanooga. But he also said the activity of average citizens is the only way this would no longer be an issue. Presently, he said the police force is stretched too thin to enforce meaningful change in drivers’ habits.

“Until 180,000 residents of Chattanooga all decide to address this issue with each other, then law enforcement won’t bring it down,” said Chief Roddy. “On any given day, you may have 50, 60, or 70 police officers patrolling a city of 300,000 people, and they all get on the road at lunch. You can’t get enough coverage to deliver a message, and we can’t issue enough citations as to where the punitive impact of that change is in behavior.”

Chief Roddy also educated the council on a variety of statistics, speaking about everything from the number of shootings in Chattanooga, to the epidemic of car thefts. On the subject of property crimes coming from cars, he implored Chattanoogans to lock their car doors and to take their keys out of their vehicles. He said that in 2019, almost half of all cars broken into were unlocked with the keys still in the vehicle.

The chief gave a special spotlight to officer Jeff Buckner, who made 226 DUI arrests in the past year. He hoped that with the increased prevalence of services such as Lyft and Uber, the number of DUI’s would decrease. He said people need to “find another way home other than in the back of one of our police cars.”

He also gave a short overview of a rescue the department recently conducted to rescue a kidnapped girl. When the Amber Alert was sent out, they did not know her condition or location. By cooperating with various law enforcement agencies both in Chattanooga and Nashville, they found her being held against her will.

“She stepped out into the hallway, and they weren’t quite sure if it was her or not,” said officer Roddy about when law enforcement found the girl. “Our fugitive unit, your fugitive detective, said ‘Lucy!’ and she immediately ran to him, jumped up, and hugged him. So it was a pretty powerful story to send resources, watch the dedication of this team, see those partnerships solidify, and then bring a 12-year-old girl home.”

 

 

 

 

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