In 1969, Tennessee included Brentwood as one of their cities. That same year, Emery Pewitt was elected to be the city’s first mayor. At the time, the sheriff’s department provided the city with most of their law enforcement needs. Mayor Pewitt and two of the city’s commissioners decided it would be better to provide full-time law enforcement services in Brentwood. On February 1, 1971, Howard D. Buttrey was hired as the city’s first Chief of Police, thus establishing the Brentwood Police Department (City of Brentwood, 2008). The United States Department of Justice’s Law Enforcement Assistance Administration gave Chief Buttrey a grant of $40,000 to buy two police cars. The Brentwood Police Department hired three officers to begin patrolling the streets full-time. At the time, this police department did not have way of dispatching their own officers. Instead, it was done by a police station in Nashville. In 1972, however, Brentwood was able to hire communications personnel. They were in charge of taking phone calls and dispatching officers. Two years later, they opened their first police department headquarters. In 1989, the Brentwood Police Department received accreditation by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies Incorporated. It became the first department in Tennessee to be accredited more than once. In 2008, it was re accredited for the fifth time. The Brentwood Police Department is very proud of their accomplishments. More history can be found in the City Of Brentwood History Page.
The only "Community Policing Unit" in Tennessee is in the City of Maryville's Police Department. They must be pretty amazing with mission statements like "A primary goal is to be known by the community and to know the residents they serve. By having the ability to talk with and to listen to residents they are able to identify situations where additional police intervention or services by other community services are needed. Officers regularly attend resident council meetings and other neighborhood activities. Throughout the workshop the officers were exhibiting their “community” commitment in interacting with the residents." (Doggette, 2004). Among the normal objectives of Community Policing Units, the Maryville's Police Department also offer programs such as "Rape Aggression Defense classes and AARP Driver's Safety" classes (Maryville A to Z). To contact about services or programs through the Maryville Police Department you can request more information by calling (865) 273-3717.
I personally think that the hardest challenges that most Community Policing Units face that the Maryville Policing Unit has overcome is that challenge of reaching out to every community. Being that Maryville is a smaller city it doesn't have too many communities and can easily spread its various members of this organization effectively. Most of the communities won't need specific needs more than others or that seem too radical in comparison so this is also a plus for this program to work even better.
Around the time of 1971, when they first obtained their grant of $40,000, one problem would be depending on the size of their town or city, would be rough to patrol around in just two cars. Obviously there could be a lot more officers that sat around when two cars were out patrolling, but how would they be able to handle more than two disturbances? It seemed like they also could not find the room necessary for their headquarters since the first police department headquarters opened in the back of an Exxon station, then moved a few times within three years. Seems after they finally hit their final location in 1987, things went up. They established over fifty-eight officers with fourteen civilian personnel around the year 2000. Plus reaccredited several times starting with 1989 and last one was reported in 2008. The only problems that could be seen in today’s world, could be a lack of resources, lack of patrol officers to cover the size of their city or town, and a well funded budget to pay the officers to continue their services.
In the state of Tennessee there are 1,869 state law enforcement agency employees, which average out per 100,000 residents to 32 employees. The sworn personnel are 972 employees and then per each 100,000 residents there are 16 personnel’s. The local police departments and employees have 254 agencies and the number of personnel is 10,905 and per 100,000 residents it is 185. Then the number of sworn personnel is 8,680 and per 100,000 residents it is 147.The sheriff’s offices and employees have 94 agencies and the number of personnel is 9,545 and per 100,000 residents it is 162. The number of sworn personnel’s is 4,665 and per 100,000 residents it is 79(Reeves, 2004). Tennessee needs to have more sworn offices for the next three reasons. First, the more sworn officers that each area has, the fewer residents that they need to look over and the more control they may have over those residencies. The second thing is the more officers we have the more coverage there is going to be, security rates would go up, and areas will not only be patrolled once but two or three times. The last and final thing is that officers would arrive quicker to call in incidences, which means that instead of waiting 20 minutes to an hour for an officer to arrive, it may only be 5 to 10 minutes. All in all the more officers an area has the easier things will flow and the safer the area becomes.
City of Brentwood (2008). Department history. City of Brentwood, Tennessee, retrieved online from http://www.brentwood-tn.org/index.aspx?page=462.
Doggette, J. (2004). Community Mediation Center. http://www.2mediate.org/News/
Maryville A to Z. http://www.ci.maryville.tn.us/
Reaves, Brian A., Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies, 2004, NCJ 212749, Local police department and employees, by State, September 2004.
Reaves, Brian A., Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies, 2004, NCJ 212749, Primary State law enforcement agency employees, by State, September 2004.
Reaves, Brian A., Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies, 2004, NCJ 212749, Sheriff9 9s offices and employees, by State, September 2004.
Image from : http://www.brentwood-tn.org/Modules/ShowImage.aspx?imageid=1398
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