After a period of innovation that placed the Knoxville Police Department (KPD) ahead of many of its contemporaries in the police world by 1982, the KPD experienced stagnation and its efficiency declined. Between 1988 and 1997, under new leadership, KPD regained its impetus in developing a community policing strategy.

Brief Stats: 376,039 residents Police department manpower: 416 COPS Grants: COPS Universal Hiring, COPS DEMO, COPS MORE, Domestic Violence.

Policing Focus

Problem-solving officers, not team units. KPD undertook a communitywide planning session to produce a crime control plan for the city and created a Community Advisory Committee to monitor community crime concerns on an individual neighborhood basis. Rather than develop a dedicated problem-solving unit, as many other police departments had done, KPD made problem solving a part of every officer's duty. KPD was redeployed into three geographic sections and the city's direct patrol program was revived to forge closer ties with residents.

Community relations and training. Under the mayor's leadership and with KPD's support, the Center for Neighborhood Development (CND) was established to help neighborhoods organize. Community relations strengthened as KPD and the CND began working together, cementing neighborhood ties. Central to reform was leadership development training for administrators and a new Field Training Officer program, with a curriculum custom designed to adjust to changing perceptions of the department's needs. To develop problem-solving competence, a 40-hour training program was devised and required for all officers.

Help from COPS. KPD received numerous Federal grants to support its community policing program. A COPS DEMO grant provided KPD with program seed money to fund model community policing programs. With a COPS Universal Hiring Grant, the department hired 18 additional officers. Money from the COPS DOMESTIC grant was spent on setting up a database to track victims. Lastly, KPD used the bulk of the $786,000 COPS MORE funds to purchase computer equipment, including ruggedized laptop computers that officers use in their cars.

For more information, click on the NATIONAL COPS EVALUATION-ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE CASE STUDY: Knoxville, Tennessee, by David Thatcher. The author describes the innovative nature of KPD's policing efforts in three stages:

1. KPD in the 1980s—an "organization in limbo."
2. KPD's organizational changes under a new mayor and police chief.
3. How the Knoxville Police Department operates today.