Vince Dean will seek another term as the Hamilton County Criminal Court clerk after over a decade in the position.
Dean, 66, was first elected clerk in 2014 after eight years as a Republican state representative, and before that, a City Council member and mayor of East Ridge. In a press release announcing his bid for reelection, Dean said he had modernized and simplified the process of going through the county’s court system during his time as clerk.
Under his leadership, the Clerk’s Office brought in a contractor — Perdue, Brandon, Fielder, Collins & Mott — to help out with collecting late fines, according to the press release. On average, the contractor collects $50,000 in fines per month, the press release said, while also providing payment plan options to make debt collection doable.
The system has become more efficient, Dean said — his office has collected debts from some decades-old cases. The only way an account with debts can be closed is if the debtor dies.
“We have come across some that the defendant had forgotten about, due to the debt not being pursued,” Dean said in the release. “I am a firm believer that if a judge orders a defendant to pay a fine, it should be paid. However, our office has repeatedly shown that we have compassion and want to make that portion of the judicial process as painless as possible.”
In 2024, Dean said that Hamilton County defendants owe the county court system over $243 million in unpaid fines. The courts keep little of the collected fees, he said at the time, with the majority of the money funneling into dozens of miscellaneous services, like Chattanooga Airport security or the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
“We’re not trying to get rich,” Dean said in 2024. “We’re just holding people’s feet to the fire. Bottom line is, if a judge told you to pay, you have to pay.”
The press release said that Dean also secured a free partnership with an online case tracking service that has users enter a name and then notifies them when that person has a court appearance. According to the press release, the number of cases in which someone fails to show up to court have gone down since the Clerk’s Office partnered with the service.
Hamilton County was also the first of the state’s four largest counties — including Shelby County, Davidson County and Knox County — to get that particular service, according to the press release.
The release touted several other services Dean helped to set up, like an automated phone system, a combined payment center for both Criminal Court and Sessions Court cases and a countywide app that people can use to access records like court dockets and the sex offender registry.
Dean is working on securing an electronic filing system for the Clerk’s Office, according to the press release, so lawyers and clients can digitally submit paperwork.
A retired Chattanooga Police Department officer, Dean still lives in East Ridge with his wife, Debbie, and dog, Rocky.
— Compiled by Siena Duncan