Chattanooga police officer being investigated for Facebook post

Lt. Craig Joel
Lt. Craig Joel

An administrative investigation has been opened into a social media post made by Lt. Craig Joel, head of property crimes for the Chattanooga Police Department.

In a photo posted to Facebook on Tuesday, a female reporter for WRCB is standing near another officer, identified as Officer Joe Warren, holding a microphone and conducting an interview. Text laid over the photo read, "Beware of immaculate conception because just standing this close to Joe Warren is how you get pregnant. Fact."

The post was taken down within 30 minutes, and when asked about it a spokeswoman for the police department said Joel's chain of command had opened the investigation. She said such an investigation could result in an officer being placed on leave, but he hadn't as of Tuesday afternoon.

Joel later replaced the original post with the same photo but different text that read, "It's a 54 part story and takes an entire production team ... to explain how awesome Joe Warren is."

In a comment below the post he wrote, "My admiration needed to be restated."

That post also was taken down later. Asked about the posts and the investigation, Joel said, "That's the first I've heard about it."

On Tuesday evening Callie Starnes, WRCB news director, said, "The post was clearly inappropriate, and we are glad the leadership of the police department is looking into it."

Contact staff writer Emmett Gienapp at egienapp@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6731. Follow him on Twitter @emmettgienapp.

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