As a federal civil rights complaint against the Chattanooga Police Department moved forward Thursday, the release of body camera footage of the 2021 arrest in question outside Calvary Chapel Chattanooga provided more information about what happened that morning on Broad Street.
The nearly 19-minute body cam video – obtained by the Chattanooga Times Free Press through an open records request – shows Chattanooga Police Officer James Elliott on April 18, 2021, driving to the church, arresting Titus Hartford and talking with people at the church, before escorting Hartford to jail.
After placing Hartford in the back of a squad car, Elliott told two individuals standing nearby that he attends Calvary. Elliott told a woman connected to the church that Hartford is “a real jerk” and described what he thought when he heard a call about a disturbance at Calvary.
“That’s my church,” Elliott said to the woman. “Well, he’s not going to be doing that this morning because I can’t come to church today because I got to work. So he’s not going be pissing off everybody else here that’s at church trying to just, you know, serve and worship Jesus.”
Hartford was standing on the sidewalk outside the church on April 18, 2021, as congregants drove into the church’s parking lot and walked into the building.