Chattanooga police officers are dissatisfied with the department’s leadership, according to an internal survey conducted earlier this year.
The survey found that while most officers were content with the management of their direct supervisors, they gave lower scores to the executive leadership under Chief Celeste Murphy, who was hired from the Atlanta Police Department and took office in April 2022.
According to results obtained by the Chattanooga Times Free Press, the department scored low on communicating and recognizing officers for good work.
Murphy replaced David Roddy, a 26-year veteran of the department who rose through the ranks to become chief in his last four years there. She quickly began reorganizing the department’s leadership.
Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly’s office commissioned the survey to address employee engagement at the department, emails received through an open records request show. Another citywide survey that ended in fall 2022 found similar issues with leadership and communication, records obtained by the Times Free Press show.