When he took the job as Chattanooga's police chief, David Roddy said he wanted to continue building community relationships, and he's since introduced himself to multiple groups of community members at different public events.
Members of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce got the chance to ply the new chief with questions during a Thursday breakfast at the Bessie Smith Cultural Center after he outlined the tenets and priorities of the Chattanooga Police Department.
Roddy touched on each of what he described as the three pillars of the department - community policing, intelligence-led policing and focused deterrence - explaining how each factored in bringing justice to the small number of people committing violent crimes in Chattanooga.
"Six hundred people, give or take, drive 65 percent of the violent acts in this city," he said. "As individuals continue to commit crime in this city, as those 600 people prey on the other 180,000-something people in this city, they get everything they've got coming to them."
He said the importance of each pillar was highlighted in the wake of a recent homicide investigators solved by bringing together video evidence, a working knowledge of violent residents and, perhaps most importantly, improved relationships with community members.
"Within a few hours of that homicide occurring we had community members calling in to the tipline to our investigators to give information they knew about that crime," he said. "All three pillars came together and led to the arrest of an individual who has been charged with that homicide."
Those relationships have been built over the last several years, Roddy said, through the diligent work of officers focused on learning the names and needs of people in sectors they serve.
In addition to solving crimes, those relationships can benefit the community and the department in other ways, as Roddy explained in his answer to a woman's question Thursday.
"Since you have good relations with the community, is this a system used for recruiting officers for the next generation?" the woman asked.
Roddy said the department has been able to build on connections with communities to recruit a more diverse group of officers. The department now works harder to follow up with potential hires who would otherwise fall out of the process or drop communications.
"We're calling them back deliberately one-on-one asking, 'is everything OK? are you still interested in being a police officer?" he said.
As a result, he said, the most recent police academy is 61 percent white instead of the usual 75 to 85 percent.
Others at the breakfast quizzed Roddy about everything from gang activity to the capabilities of the department's new real-time intelligence center. Beth Harell, an affiliate broker, asked what citizens could do to assist him and Chattanooga police.
"How can we as a downtown council chamber support you personally in this new role?" she asked.
Roddy said community members could host events such as the breakfast to learn more about policing in their neighborhoods, and he also encouraged attendees to report concerns promptly so they can be dealt with.
Oftentimes when we find out about an issue, that issue has been going on for three months," he said. "By the time it actually comes to the police department's attention, the reality doesn't match the perception."
Asked about his response to her question, Harrell said she's confident Roddy is well-equipped to handle his role as chief and believes residents should work with the department.
"As citizens, too often we complain, but we don't help," she said.
Contact staff writer Emmett Gienapp at egienapp@timesfree press.com or 423-757-6731. Follow him on Twitter @emmettgienapp.