Recent History

On June 12th 2014, Fred Fletcher was sworn in as the Chief of Police for the City of Chattanooga.

Chief Fletcher brought with him over 20 years of law enforcement experience in Austin, Texas – the second safest large city in the nation.

As the Chief of Police for the City of Chattanooga, Fletcher changed not only how the Chattanooga Police Department does business but also its culture and value system as well as how community and police partner to solve problems. Chief Fletcher brought experience to Chattanooga as well as his own personal philosophies on effective policing including the importance of victim-centered, trauma-informed care.

Under Chief Fletcher’s leadership, the Chattanooga Police Department built the City’s first-ever Victim Services Unit while also dramatically reducing overall crime citywide. Chief Fletcher also embraced progressive ideas and technology while building a Real Time Intelligence Center, creating groundbreaking diversity programs, deploying body worn cameras along with a model policy, developing a gun crime network with federal partners, and many other exciting developments.

Chief Fletcher retired from the Chattanooga Police Department in July, 2017. He loves dogs and running.

On July 6th 2010, the Chattanooga City Council unanimously approved Mayor Ron Littlefield's choice of Bobby H. Dodd for Police Chief to replace the outgoing Chief Cooper. 

Chief Dodd, a graduate with honors from both the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and the South Eastern Command & Leadership Academy, is a native of the East Lake area and served in the Army prior to joining the Department in 1986.

At the time of his appointment he was a 25 year Department veteran, having most recently served as a Zone Commander (Lieutenant), Division Commander (Captain) and as the Assistant Chief over Criminal Investigations since 2007.  Chief Dodd spent the majority of his career in the Criminal Investigations Division but has also served in Uniform Services, Mounted Patrol, and served five years on the S.W.A.T. team.  He has been married to his wife Karen for 24 years and has two adult children (Bobby Jr. and Monica).

Upon assuming command of the Department, Chief Dodd made an immediate impact in the area of Gangs by tripling the size of his Crime Suppression Unit and reinforcing Patrol numbers from other divisions to focus on calls for service.

On January 11, 2007, the City of Chattanooga hosted a swearing in ceremony for Freeman Cooper, who became Chattanooga's 26th Chief of Police, succeeding Steve Parks. Chief Freeman Cooper was one of 13 applicants for the position, which involved a nationwide search by the Mayor's office. Then-Executive Chief Freeman Cooper was presented by Mayor Ron Littlefield to the City at the December 19, 2006 City Council meeting, where the Council approved the 25 year Department veteran and FBI National Academy graduates' appointment effective January 1, 2007.  Chief Cooper was best known for his renewed focus on addressing juvenile and gang related crimes.

In January of 2004, Chief Dotson expressed his desire to leave the Department and settled into retirement after 30-plus years as an Officer and an Administrator.  The Chattanooga Police Department came under the leadership of a new administration when Mayor Bob Corker announced in the following month that he had selected Steve Parks (who had been serving as Deputy Chief of Investigations) to be Chattanooga's new Chief of Police after an initially tumultuous search.   

Chief Parks reorganized the command structure of the Administration, creating an Executive Chief to oversee the day-to-day running of the department.  Reporting directly to the Executive Chief were the Deputy Chief of Administration and Support, and the Deputy Chief of Operations--the combination of what was formerly the Uniform Services and Investigative Services Commands, making this the first time in decades such divisions were brought under 'one roof'.

The department had no chief of police until 1997 when J. L. Dotson was appointed by Mayor Jon Kinsey. Chief Dotson worked vigorously to bring about many changes to the department's organizational structure. The department began to pursue national accreditation and as a result the entire police manual was reviewed and re-written. Chief Dotson pressed for increased salaries and educational opportunities for Chattanooga Police officers as well as improvement of the department's outdated computer system. The command structure was changed and the number of Deputy Chief positions was reduced from three to two. The new organizational structure took effect early in 2000. 

In March of 2001 the Chattanooga Police Department was officially Accredited by CALEA (the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies), thus placing it in the top three percentile of police agencies nation wide thanks to Chief Dotson's initiatives and the hard work of every person in the department.  These standards hold our agency accountable on a national scale and bring us in line with the most modern departments across the country.  These standards will be reviewed every three years in order to retain our accreditation, as was done recently in March of 2004 when the CALEA Commission announced our re-accreditation after a thorough on-site review process involving not just internal documentation and practices, but external review via citizen input as well.