Collegedale, Tennessee, residents packed City Hall Monday evening to share their concerns and hear from commissioners about the recent shakeups at the city’s police department and ongoing Tennessee Bureau of Investigation probe into an alleged traffic quota system.
Three Collegedale police officers were fired earlier this month, allegedly for cooperating with the TBI’s investigation, their attorney has said. In the officers’ disciplinary files, the city states they were terminated for “conduct unbecoming of an officer.” But what that alleged conduct actually was is not clarified.
The last entry in each officer’s disciplinary file, which is separate from their personnel file, is a lengthy reprimand for allegedly not checking on houses that were on the department’s “watch list” and a directive for remedial counseling. That entry was logged three months after the directive to check the houses twice instead of once per shift, and each officer rebutted the complaint.
A “watch list” is a list of houses under surveillance either for suspicious activity or because the resident asked for police to check on it while they were out of town.
“What we want to hear tonight are facts, not hearsay,” Mayor Katie Lamb said Monday night before opening the floor to citizens.