Andrew Peker, training director for the Chattanooga Police Department, talks to all departing officers before they leave, whether they’re retiring or resigning. Many times, Peker said, he sees tears welling up in their eyes.
“They don’t want to go,” Peker told members of the Chattanooga City Council on Tuesday. “They don’t want to leave. CPD is a family.”
Peker said those police officers have to explain to their families why they want to work for the Chattanooga Police Department when the same position at departments in any direction would pay more. Peker works three jobs, he said — at a movie theater, at Erlanger Hospital and as a police officer.
“It hurts to know that if I work anywhere else, I probably would only work one job, and that is priceless to my wife and my three kids,” Peker said. “We’re exposed to a lot more calls, more death, more trauma than any, any other agency around here. We’re busier. That’s OK. We get that, but we do it for a lot less money. We want to be here.”