The Chattanooga Fire and Police Departments are facing significant recruitment challenges due to an outdated residency rule that requires employees to live within Tennessee. Currently, a police officer or firefighter can legally commute over five hours from Memphis, Nashville, or Knoxville but cannot commute five minutes from Rossville or nearby Alabama cities. This arbitrary restriction limits our ability to attract and retain qualified first responders, directly impacting public safety.
At a time when both departments face challenges in maintaining adequate staffing levels, this rule significantly limits the pool of potential recruits and undermines our ability to ensure the safety of all Chattanoogans. Public safety relies on a consistent influx of qualified candidates to fill training academies and replace employees lost to retirements or promotions. Within the next five years, 150 of the Chattanooga Fire Department’s 437 firefighters will be eligible to retire. The proposed referendum aims to remove this restriction, enabling us to recruit police officers and firefighters from neighboring states—just minutes away—while ensuring they meet all other job requirements.
Tens of thousands of individuals living in our surrounding areas work in Chattanooga, spend money in the city, and contribute to our community every day. These individuals, part of our legally defined Metropolitan Statistical Area, often consider themselves Chattanoogans. However, they are currently prohibited from serving as first responders simply because of where they sleep at night. By removing this needless geographic distinction, we can attract a more extensive and diverse applicant pool, including experienced and certified professionals ready to serve immediately.
This referendum would not compromise standards. All recruits, whether living in Tennessee or across the border, must meet the same attendance requirements, pass the same rigorous tests, and adhere to the same high standards of service. Expanding the applicant pool will enable us to address staffing shortages, save on training costs, and maintain the quality of public safety services Chattanooga residents rely on.
Your vote in favor of this referendum will allow us to recruit the best-qualified candidates for these critical roles, ensure public safety, and build a stronger Chattanooga Fire and Police Department. Help us make this necessary change to protect and serve our growing community.
However, to be clear: the objective will always be to recruit locally. That said, removing certain barriers—such as lowering the age requirement from 21 to 18 like we have done and eliminating the residency requirement—will enhance our process and help us attract the best talent.
I am available to answer any questions you have between now and election time. Feel free to reach out at any time.
Captain Damien Vinson
Community Outreach and Recruitment Coordinator
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If a city or county needs firemen and policemen, it they are willing to travel from where they are and can be at work on time, hire them.
When I moved to Gwinnett County, Ga., the county, which is in the Metro Atlanta area, was growing fast and was in bad need or both firemen and policemen. They hired men from all over the place. In particular, because there were new subdivisions going everywhere. A lot of new fire stations were going up as quickly as they could stack bricks. Most of those moving here were working in Atlanta or other suburban neighborhoods.
I was amazed when I stopped by Station 10, which is about 10 miles from my house, most of the firemen manning Station 10 were from both Duck Town and Copperhill, Tn. One might say that “you cannot hear from there.” They travelled back roads with plenty of mountains. The fire departments in the county at the time I moved here started in 1971. Communities like mine were Volunteer Fire Departments, but now I am covered by three stations. which are between four and 10 miles from my home. Now this county has 31 professionally manned and they are building more. Close proximity of a fire station cut my home insurance at least 40 percent.
When I moved here there were three policemen and two cars. Now a countywide police department employs 936 policemen.
I will take firemen and policemen from wherever they live and you never see one at the Krispy Kreme or the Dunkin Donut stores. Believe it or not, there were many in this town who wanted to keep the old police department and our volunteer fire department.
I am not a spring chicken and I recently fell in the bathroom. We called 911 and the EMTs from the fire station were here in about five minutes.
Raleigh C. Perry
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Captain Vinson is correct. Restrictive rules that forbid employment simply because a line on a map separates the willing worker from the needful employer are arbitrary.
But let's consider, for entertainment purposes, that those boundaries have meaning. Once that line is drawn and legal authority given to the political bodies on both sides of that line, then the line really separates the "us" from the "them". The great state of Georgia has set up a system of governance that is different than that of Tennessee. Different taxes, different land use laws, different education and employment rules, etc., and that separation serves a purpose which is to allow the differing states to serve people of differing opinions.
That difference also allows the states to compete. For the savvy and observant that competition is not just about claiming bragging rights (or shame) but it is about seeing which rules work better, and then adopting one's system to outperform the other the next time around.
So, Tennessee has a problem with attracting its own people to stick around and perform public service jobs, yet people from Georgia seem to be really willing to make that sacrifice. Why? What does Tennessee need to do better to keep our own youngsters around? This is where the true fitness of one's government has the opportunity to compete in open contest. Let the market decide. Give no quarter. Make no exceptions. Stick to rules, don't change them because they inconvenience you. This is what a great America is all about, challenging adversity and rising to the top through effort, not favors.
That is one way to look at the arbitrariness of that border. But, maybe Captain Vincent is right and it is not just the rule that is arbitrary, but the border itself? Either that rule means something, or none of them do. Either that border means something...or maybe none of them do?
Shannon Mikus