Chattanooga Police Department Investigator Daryl Slaughter recalled days when he watched a “full-color, movie-like” video of a man strangling a woman or witnessed the bashed-in head of a young child.
For every five homicides Slaughter has solved, it’s five dead people he’s seen. It’s five groups of loved ones he had to break the news to.
“I don’t think God intended for us to see this every day,” Slaughter said. “I don’t think people realize what they expect us to do for such little pay.”
The Chattanooga Police Department’s violent crimes team was down about 12% of its workforce as of June, and 36 people had put in nearly 11,000 hours of overtime during the first half of the year, according to a report obtained through an open records request by the Chattanooga Times Free Press.