Minority Community Relations Task Force pushes for recruitment in Sheriff’s Office

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- The Minority Community Relations Task Force that Sheriff Hammond commissioned last year is ready to release new hiring recommendations.

Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond created the Minority Community Relations Task Force after a group of concerned citizens approached him about the actions of Detective Blake Kilpatrick in 2018.

Steven Smith, with The Minority Community Relations Task Force says, “Majority of the community felt like that was police brutality.”

The task force was created with hopes to recruit more minorities and improve the perception of law enforcement in the community.

According to the Sheriff’s office, they have hired 14 African Americans, 27 women, and 1 Hispanic since January of 2019.

Both Sheriff Hammond and the task force agree that diversifying deputies still needs improvement.

“This needs to be a group effort both on the part of the task force and a group effort on the part of the Sheriff’s office. We’ve got some ideas for community engagement that the sheriff’s office can participate in that helps to build that relationship”, adds Smith.

The task force says that while they look forward to working on future plans, they are disappointed about recent events within the Sheriff’s office.

Steven Smith also says, “The things that have happened recently, do nothing to improve that relationship. It shows the need. That there has to be some sort of improvement so that citizens can feel safe and so that the Sheriff’s office can safely do their job.”

On Wednesday, the Task Force released a statement saying that they plan to recommend a new minority hiring policy.

[pdf-embedder url=”https://wdef.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Statement-from-HCSO-Minority-Relations-Community-Task-Force.pdf” title=”Statement from HCSO Minority Relations Community Task Force“]

According to the U.S. Census bureau, Hamilton County is 75% white, 19% black and 6% Hispanic or other.

The Sheriff’s office says that department wide they are 86% white, 11% black, 2% Hispanic and 1% other.

Sheriff Hammond issued the following statement:

“I established the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office’s Equal Employment Office Commission Office (EEOC) in 2018 and appointed Captain Van Hinton as our agency EEOC Officer. Captain Hinton’s work centers on expanding and improving our efforts to recruit minorities. Part of our EEOC Officer’s efforts include maintaining strong working relationships with many of our local African American leaders, including members of the clergy. His relationships with service based organizations within the African American community, especially those with faith based leaders, have helped our agency bridge the gap between law enforcement and the minority community as well as understand and address their concerns.

Since January 2019, agency wide we have been successful in hiring (14) African Americans, (27) women, and (1) Hispanic personnel. It is and has always been my goal to ensure the HCSO is comprised of personnel that accurately reflects the community to which we are so proud to serve. I look forward to receiving the Taskforce’s proposed personnel policy and hearing their ideas to help continue to encourage minority recruitment and diversity within our ranks.”