Chattanooga Police officer Kyle Hullander sang the national anthem a cappella before a full auditorium at Silverdale Baptist Church, the hums of the audience serving as a backing track.
Friday was the first day Hullander was authorized to wear that title and his badge on the street. Hullander graduated Thursday from the Chattanooga Police Department Academy in the largest graduating class the department has seen since 2013.
“I just got out of the Navy,” Hullander said in an interview. “And leaving the Navy, I really wanted a job that had meaning.”
The graduating class was 32 cadets strong. The class took the department’s vacancy rate from 23% down to 8% or 9%, Chattanooga Police Chief John Chambers said. Of the 478 sworn officers the department is budgeted for, now that this academy has graduated, there are 19 vacancies and eight additional slots to account for attrition, Chambers said.
Chattanooga’s largest police academy class graduates, puts vacancy rate percentage in single digits
When the next academy starts in March, there will be a 0% vacancy rate.
In recent years, the department has been bringing in about 20 officers between the two academies it hosts each year but was losing 40 to 50 a year due to retirements, terminations and separations for other reasons, Chambers said.
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“So you’re in this deficit every single year between 20 and 30. That compounds year after year after year,” Chambers said, “and we were feeling it.”
The department was budgeted for 486 sworn officers in 2015 and today is budgeted for 478. In that 10-year period, call volume has increased by 24%.
Chambers attributed the increase in candidates to a restructured recruiting process, the city ordinance that allows the department to recruit across the state line in North Georgia and increased marketing efforts.
The department reclassified a professional staff position to create an in-house human resources department with the sole purpose of processing applicants. That change helped retain applicants who might have obtained other jobs while waiting to be processed, Chambers said.
“If you’re applying for a job, it’s because you need one. People don’t normally go through that process if they’re just looking for something to do,” Chambers said. “And if we’re not efficient in our process, then someone else is going to hire them before we get the opportunity to.”
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But the lowered vacancy rate comes from both an increase in candidates coming in and a decrease in officers leaving. Chambers said attrition has slowed, and the department is only losing around two officers a month now.
The department was approved for pay raises in 2025, making the pay competitive with nearby law enforcement agencies, Chambers said. Cadets’ salaries while in the academy are about $54,000.
“As long as we can remain competitive, then there’s no reason for us to ever really go backward,” Chambers said. “I mean, we’re heading in a really good direction.”
Chambers said the increase in candidates has allowed department leaders to increase standards and be more selective than they’ve been in the past.
“We’re able to fill those vacant positions,” Chambers said, “and at the same time, with a higher caliber of candidate that will serve our community much better.”
Hullander was one of those candidates, and so was Alize Carroll. Carroll joined the department after he came home from the Marines.
“I’m a very religious man. I’m Catholic, and I believe that God puts everyone on this planet for certain reasons,” Carroll said. “And I believe that God put me on this planet to serve and protect those people out there.”
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The pair compared the academy to boot camp and decided the academy was more fun.
“It’s the most fun you’ll never want to experience again,” Carroll said. “In certain ways, it’s very fun, but you want to move on to what you actually came here for.”
Carroll said it is very humbling to be on the cusp of being part of something that is much greater than yourself. The new officers who graduated on Thursday have four months of field training to go through before they are fully fledged, but the reality was setting in for Hullander and Carroll.
The academy class’s quote came from Isaiah 6:8.
“I hear the voice call out from the Lord saying, ‘Who will go before us? Who shall I send?’ And I say, ‘Here am I, send me,'” Carroll recited.
“Here am I, send me,” Hullander echoed.
Contact breaking news reporter Kailee Shores at kshores@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659.