Knoxville Police Chief Paul Noel adds deputy chief to improve department's culture, values

The Knoxville Police Department will add a deputy chief to uphold the agency's culture and make sure members adhere to the values set by Chief Paul Noel.

The position, deputy director of professional standards, is one Noel planned to add since he took on the job seven months ago. The position requires the person to be an attorney, meaning whoever gets the job will likely come from outside the department.

Chief Noel and Mayor Kincannon will be holding a press conference at 11 a.m. EST to introduce the new deputy chief. This page will be updated with the stream below.

Noel told Knox News he expects the new deputy chief to take a 50,000-foot view of how the department operates.

The person will join the department's three other deputy chiefs to help guide Noel's decisions and “course correct” the agency when necessary, he said. In day-to-day work, the new hire will oversee the departments’ internal affairs operations.

What deputy director of professional standards will do

The new deputy chief, Noel said, will catch small issues before they become large, crippling ones. Much of what the person will focus on, he said, was laid bare in a culture assessment Noel ordered after he took over in June so he could better understand the challenges he faced. The survey showed widespread dissatisfaction with communication from leadership. It also revealed that nearly every Black employee at KPD has experienced discrimination.

In an example the role the new deputy chief could play to solve a problem before it becomes serious, Noel referenced the case of former KPD officer Joseph Roberts.

Roberts was granted judicial diversion by Judge Scott Green after he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of destroying or tampering with records following a January 2022 chase he initiated. He was accused of lying about starting the high-speed pursuit of 24-year-old Siara Davis, turning off his cameras and falsifying his arrest report. The chase reached speeds up to 100 mph during rush hour and ended in a crash that injured three people.

“Well, how do you prevent something like (Roberts) from happening? You can’t click your heels three times and hope something like that doesn’t happen,” Noel said. “You have to not only have policies, practices and procedures in place to prevent these things from happening. But then you need to have someone to make sure that we’re following the policy, practices and procedures in the first place.”

This job isn’t a hall monitor

Noel stressed the position isn’t being added to get officers in trouble, but rather to keep them out of trouble. If the deputy chief identifies a small problem, that creates a chance to make a change early to prevent it from spiraling out of control.

“Even when you have a position like this, it doesn't mean we're never going to have police misconduct, right? We’ll have it. People will make bad decisions," Noel said. "This is not designed to stop that. This is designed to stop the systematic errors you’ve kind of seen here and then other places.”

Is this position typical in other departments?

Departments the size of Knoxville don’t typically have these types of positions, Noel said, but larger ones usually do. Nashville has had one for years and New Orleans, where Noel was a deputy superintendent before coming to Knoxville, had a version of the position.

What will the person be paid?

Yes.

Knoxville City Council members unanimously approved the position Tuesday. Ordinances require them to vote to approve it a final time in two weeks.

No salary has been set, but deputy chiefs typically make about $100,000, according to 2019 salary data.

What Chief Paul Noel inherited

In short, Noel inherited a mess at the upper ranks of KPD.

Since 2019, there have been 10 resignations, retirements or firings amid scandals at KPD, plus a retirement due to retaliation for blowing the whistle. This includes Noel's firing of a lieutenant who lied during an internal investigation. Separately, some Black officers have said there is endemic racism within the department.

Departmental culture will have to be reshaped, Noel said when he was hired earlier this year, starting with accountability. Some of this is being addressed by KPD joining ABLE, the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement program that is an offshoot of New Orleans' Ethical Policing Is Courageous program that made Noel a national figure.

The job description gets to the culture of the department: "Assesses the department’s current culture versus the desired culture and identifies specific gaps needing addressed. Works closely with leadership to declare the degree of culture shift necessary to achieve realization."

Tyler Whetstone is an investigative reporter focused on accountability journalism. Connect with Tyler by emailing him at tyler.whetstone@knoxnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @tyler_whetstone. Make our community, our society and our republic stronger by supporting robust local journalism. Subscribe online at knoxnews.com/subscribe.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Knoxville police to hire deputy chief for officer accountability