Chattanooga Community Policing

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – Thousands of videos that have gone viral this week… followed by the hashtag Community Policing.

“Community policing has proved to be the successful model for the 21st century of policing, and it’s not something new,” Assistant Chief with the Chattanooga Police Department Tracy Arnold said.

“If you think about how it began back in the day, a police officer would work a beat, and he would work that beat every day. All the people in that neighborhood would know him, he would know them, and they had a relationship of trust, and because they were familiar with him, and he was familiar with them, that was a community concept. He was part of the community. Not just protecting the community, but was a part of it.”

Arnold says the CPD has used Community Policing on-and-off for more than 20 years now and says it’s been so successful, other departments across the country have started to use as a way to reduce violence in our neighborhoods, and eliminate the fear of police brutality.

“We’ve developed a relationship with the community, a trust with the community,” Arnold said.

“They know that we’re here today, and not gone tomorrow, but we’re here tomorrow as well. And because we have that trust, and that relationship, they’re more apt to give us information that we need in order to solve some of the problems in the community.”