The Chattanooga Police Department is proposing a $924,000 increase to its $85.4 million budget, including $565,000 to cover new positions and $359,000 in positions transferred from other city departments.
The changes are scheduled to go to the City Council for approval on Sept. 13.
The bulk of the proposed changes would add new staff members who are not sworn officers on the force -- a director of organizational development and training, a development manager, a director of public affairs and four intelligence analysts, according to a budget amendment summary obtained by the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Among officers, the proposed changes call for several new ranks and reductions in the number of people holding existing ranks. For example, there would be 16 lieutenants instead of 20, seven captains instead of eight and two assistant chiefs instead of four. The plan would add five majors and two executive chiefs, two positions that do not now exist.
After the rank changes, total sworn officer positions would remain at 477.
Among non-sworn personnel, the addition of the analysts and other new positions would grow the total to 123 from 116.
The $565,000 cost of Police Department position changes would be covered by contingency funds.
In addition, three social workers would be transferred from the city's Office of Community Health, as would a Human Resources employee. The $359,000 in positions from other departments are already in the city budget.
The budget amendment summary also proposes to eliminate vacant positions such as technicians in the property room and information center.
The changes follow a series of promotions announced on Facebook in July under Chief Celeste Murphy, who came to the city in April from the Atlanta Police Department.
(READ MORE: Chattanooga Police Department promotions will cost over $100,000)
"It's important to note that this budget amendment looks purely at cost," Kirsten Yates, the communications director for the city, said in an email. "It does not elaborate on streamlining operations or other actions."
When asked how these new positions would benefit the community and policing, Yates said adding nonsworn positions to the department will enable officers to perform the duties they signed up for.
"The newly added non-sworn personnel will perform duties that will free up sworn personnel to spend more time on the streets," Yates said. "The city is also exploring a number of smart policing initiatives such as shifting responsibility for minor car accident reports with no reported injuries to nonsworn officers, which would also free up sworn officers to spend more time on enforcement-related duties."
Contact La Shawn Pagán at lpagan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476. Follow her on Twitter @LaShawnPagan.