Staff photo by Wyatt Massey / Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly (second from left) speaks during a seminar hosted through the Chattanooga-Hamilton County BME District Association at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church on May 12, 2021. The mayor was joined in the discussion by the Rev. E. Lamar Young of LifePoint Church (left), Edna Varner of the Chattanooga NAACP (center), Greg Funderburg of WTVC News Channel 9 (second from right) and Danielle Moss of WDEF 12 News (right).Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly said he has zero tolerance for white nationalists in the police department and his administration will be transparent with releasing information if violence involving officers occurs.
The mayor was asked about his approach to policing and criminal justice on Wednesday evening as part of a three-day seminar series hosted through the Chattanooga-Hamilton County BME District Association at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church. Kelly also discussed his hopes of developing a local workforce and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kelly was asked how he plans to address any white nationalist influences in the police force. In 2019, a project from the Center for Investigative Reporting revealed that hundreds of police officers were members of or sympathetic to white supremacist groups. A Pentagon report released in March said domestic extremists were recruiting military members, according to reporting from The Associated Press.
Kelly said he and police Chief David Roddy would not tolerate any white nationalist influence.
“The department is 400-plus people, and I cannot say that we don’t have a problem. I don’t know what I don’t know,” Kelly said. “I think one of the shocking lessons for a guy that looked like me in the last five years was that there were so many people out there who consciously or unconsciously were white supremacists.”