Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke and Police Chief David Roddy answered questions about policing and ongoing reforms from local clergy Tuesday night during a virtual town hall.
The officials spoke about efforts by the city to engage community members, including the recently announced Office of Community Resilience, which is part of an alternative budget the City Council approved on Tuesday night. The office uses resources transferred away from the police department.
"We're having a much needed dialogue about what is the proper role of policing in our country, not just our community, and also how do we make sure that we keep people safe and how do we stop the systemic racism that has been with us since the founding of our country?" Berke told the pastors. "These are really weighted, difficult topics."
Around 380 people watched the livestream, which included Berke, Roddy, Public Safety Coordinator Troy Rogers and an all-male group of eight pastors from Kingdom Partners, a local organization focused on ending racial divides in the church. The pastors later apologized for not having any women on the panel.
Many of those watching were critical of the discussion, particularly the lack of conversation about funding and reallocating money away from traditional policing.
The Office of Community Resilience - which will include the Family Justice Center and some social work previously housed in the police department - will use about $1 million to keep conversations ongoing like ones currently happening about policy reform, Berke said.
The funding for the office represents less than 0.5% of the city's total budget in 2020.
Roddy told the pastors his department does not use any military-grade equipment made available to local police departments through the 1033 Program. However, the department is looking to get a new bomb disposal robot through a military surplus program rather than using tax dollars to buy one, Roddy said.
The police chief also explained what systems are in place to provide mental health resources to officers who may have traumatic experiences on the job.
Many watching were also critical when the mayor responded to a question from Chris Sorensen, abbot with Mission Chattanooga, about whether the city could implement a municipal drug strategy that provides more resources to drug users instead of criminalizing addiction, which often disproportionately targets people of color.
Berke said much of the possible response to drug use locally is out of the city's control, since the jail and health department are controlled by the county. There is also a lack of funding, Berke said.
"We don't have dollars to treat people, which typically will come from the federal government or the state government," he said. "Those dollars don't exist for us to do what we need to do."
Weeks of protests in Chattanooga's streets have focused specifically on questions of funding and where money is being spent, specifically with calls to move money away from the police department's $73 million budget last year and invest it directly in black communities.
Cameron "C-Grimey" Williams, who has led local protests this month, said the clergy missed an opportunity to hold local leaders accountable to reform. This week, when the council voted to approve Berke's alternative budget, public comment was cut off after one hour when around 30 of the more than 200 people signed up had spoken.
"They let them off the hook with the questioning," Williams said. "I don't think they really asked any questions that were really relative to what was going on in this moment. They didn't ask them anything related to the people that are in the streets."
Williams called the $1 million given to the mayor's new office "insulting" and said the city's clergy could have done more with the town hall to advocate for the community.
"Our clergy let us down," he said. "Jesus was a protester. Plain and simple."
Contact Wyatt Massey at wmassey@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249. Follow him on Twitter @news4mass.