Should Chattanooga’s first responders have to live in Tennessee?
In March, voters will decide whether to amend Chattanooga's charter to allow city employees to live out-of-state.
Graphic/Ian-Alijah
By William Newlin
A decline in recruitment numbers for Chattanooga’s police and fire departments has created a question for Chattanooga voters: Should the city require its employees to live in Tennessee?
Currently, the answer is yes. However, Chattanooga City Council members unanimously voted this week to add the question to ballots in the municipal election set for March 4, 2025. The referendum will ask city residents to decide whether to delete the state residency requirement from Chattanooga’s charter.
“When (Chattanooga Police Department) Chief (John) Chambers and I got hired, there were lots of applicants,” Fire Chief Phil Hyman told City Council members at their Oct. 22 meeting. “Those demographics have changed over time, and they’ve changed across the nation as well.”
In an interview with Chattamatters, police recruitment commander Lt. Kevin Akins said CPD has failed to fill a full police academy in the past five years.
Numbers have steadily risen since, Akins said, although the class size of the two 2024 academies remained below the department’s 25-person standard to replace departing staff. As officers make up for personnel shortages, the effect is increased overtime and an added physical and mental toll.
“When you're answering calls where there's a severe child abuse, sex crimes, homicides — we’re seeing all those things,” Akins said. “And when you're working for 12 to 16 hours a day, multiple days a week, it's good to be making money and supporting your family, but that has an impact on your mental health.”
Removing the charter’s residency requirement would expand the pool of first responder recruits beyond state lines, with an eye toward border communities in Georgia and Alabama. The amendment does not set a geographical limit on where employees could live.
The proposal has been in the works for “years and years,” Akins said, and follows the lifting of a previous requirement that public employees had to reside within Chattanooga’s city limits. Akins thinks the change would both improve recruitment among young people and entice more seasoned officers to switch to a bigger department or snag a larger paycheck.
“There are some people that say, ‘Well, I have to be a resident of Tennessee. I'm not going to move,’” said CPD recruitment sergeant Mike Smith. “That may cut out some people that could be really good applicants.”
Hiring challenges
Strict law enforcement standards and nationwide culture shifts have hindered police recruitment, Akins said. Two of CPD's disqualifiers: tattoos above the collarbone and marijuana use in the prior 12 months. Past job terminations and arrest histories eliminate candidates, too, as 25% to 35% of applicants never make the academy, Akins said.
“Our recruiting has been minimal as far as applicants that meet our qualifications,” he said.
Recruiting challenges are neither new nor isolated to Chattanooga. A report from the International Association of Chiefs of Police also cited drug use, tattoos, and failed background checks as fuel for a “recruitment crisis” in late 2019. More than three-quarters of the United States law enforcement agencies surveyed reported lacking qualifications among applicants.
The report also claimed long hours and missed holidays are less appealing to young people, and student loan debt and child care gaps make “police work a stressful occupation for families today.”
Then in May 2020, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd, sparking anti-police protests across the country. CPD’s recruitment numbers “went way down,” Akins said, and systemic police racism received intense scrutiny nationally.
According to a survey of 214 law enforcement agencies by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) — a research and policy-making nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. — new police hires increased last year for the first time since 2020. Despite CPD’s minor gains this year, the department is still feeling the squeeze.
“The stigma of some communities is like, ‘Hey, we're not gonna talk to police, you know, we don't want to have anything to do with the police,’” Sgt. Smith said. “So we do find that sometimes.”
Other incentives
In September, City Council members approved a measure tailored to reduce firefighter shortages — city code now allows the fire department to hire 18-year-olds.
At the Oct. 22 Council meeting, Fire Chief Hyman said the proposed charter change is the next step. Akins also views the referendum as just one part of the recruitment solution. Another is pay.
The starting salary for the CPD is $45,780, lower than other local departments and agencies, Akins said. Competitive pay from the Chattanooga Housing Authority, the airport, and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office has lured potential recruits and siphoned officers with several years experience.
“Even people have left here and went to work at the Hamilton County Jail,” Akins said. “Which used to be … you had to work your way through the jail to get to work patrol at the county.”
Combining a pay increase with the charter amendment would create a better draw for established officers from around the region, Akins said, a key hiring goal due to uneven recruit quality.
Chattanoogans will have the final say on the residency question when they hit the polls in March. More than half of voters would have to favor the amendment for the change to take effect.
Email William Newlin at william@chattamatters.com.