Police in Knoxville (Cookeville: house, schools, university)

[Travis]

I am looking to move to East Tennessee around spring or summer 07 from Florida. I am wanting to know if anyone could tell me what police department would be best to work for in the Knoxville area?

[insanesmooch]

I really don't have a good impression of the Knoxville police department. When I was younger, the man who ran the store across the street from us was shot. We were told to look around for the casings from the bullets. They never have found the guy who actually did the shooting. Once they put the guy who was riding with him in prison, they stopped looking for the other guy (even though they knew who he was). While at our house they did solve a case, only because the guy was calling in to turn himself in.
There is another case going on now that is high profile in the area. The sheriff refuses to even go on America's Most Wanted about it. Overall, the department is doing little about the case and the only one there really working on it was killed in an car crash earlier this year.
While that is only a couple of cases out of many the deal with, the bad impressions are the ones that tend to stick. And of course, I'm sure things like that happen in all police departments everywhere at some time or another.

[mrs1885]

My husband and I both retired from a department in Florida and haven't been impressed with any of the agencies around. For the most part there are small little police departments - some are really big on the Good Old Boys mentality and do what they want. The county we live in has a terrible sheriff's office. Tons of corruption, but they are trying to change that. The neighboring town has a pretty nice police department and from what I've seen they aren't too bad. Short of working in a big city like Nashville, I think you are going to find the departments here very different from Florida.

[DivaLicious]

I guess we don't even wanna talk about the deputy in Anderson county that was on the news last night (WATE). He went on a domestic violence call, was suposed to be taking the woman to her father's but instead took her on some secluded road and raped her...Yeah, I have alot of confidence in the Police in TN....NOT! I also live in a county that is corupt and has the "good ole boy" mentality.

[Travis]

I am really sorry to hear all of this. I really like the area but it sounds like the police and the people don't get along too well up there.

[DivaLicious]

Travis, perhaps you could make a differnce. I hope you can find an area you like and find a good department. It's just IMO kind of hard in the South. I have even given thought to geting my degree and working in Juvi with troubled children to make sure I can be someone to try and help turn them kids around and to make sure they aren't getting abused in juvi. This world needs good people who still care about other people and want to do good.

[TC500]

You also might want to try the campus police for the University of Tennessee.

[insanesmooch]

Overall, I don't think it is a big civilians versus police thing. But in smaller places it's more 'good 'ol boy'. I don't think it is like that in Knoxville. Being a policeman/woman should be the type of job one goes into because they really want to do that and feel it is a calling. Maybe some of them really wanted to do that at one time and either got discouraged or influenced by peers. Seems they are getting a little lazy or give up too easy. I don't know. We need some good police and changes in some of the systems up here.

[mbmouse]

Gonna throw my little ol opinion in here. Coming from FL to North east TN, one thing I noticed that the police in this area GET THINGS DONE! In FL, you wouldn't even hear about things that went on, like robbery, break ins, bad car accidents, missing children, drug busts, etc. But here I noticed you hear about EVERYTHING on the news. And if there is someone "on the run" you hear about it until they are caught, and that usually doesn't take to long. The sheriffs Dept.s do seem to be more active in community than the city police but they all seem to be well staffed. They hold a lot of D.A.R.E. programs in the schools and communities, there is always a Sheriffs booth at the fairs. I feel very safe here and I feel like my children are safe. They don't wait 24 hours to put out a state wide Amber alert if a child is snatched, they put it out right away and the last 3 ( I think there were only 3 this year) were all from an estranged family member and were caught that day! Our jails are over crowded, but that tells me, they keep the bad people in jail.
Sorry, but to me, that means good Dept's.

[Dd714]

I keep on remembering that Cookeville incident (Cookeville is about 60 miles to the east of Knoxville) in 2003 where the local police pulled over a family, held them at gunpoint, then shot the beloved family dog. All because a driver saw a wallet fall off the top of a car. This was well publicized, including a horrid videa tape, and was condemed by all. All of course except for the police. That turned my esteem and respect for the police to absolutely zero in that area.

Ever consider a career change?