The five-person search committee named by Mayor Andy Berke to review and interview individuals seeking the top post at the Chattanooga Police Department made its final recommendations to the Mayor this week. From the 49 applications submitted for the position, the committee selected current acting Chief David Roddy, Assistant Chief Edwin McPherson and Captain Todd Chamberlain of the Los Angeles Police Department.
The committee was tasked only with narrowing the pool down to a top three.
“We feel like this has been an open, fair and deliberative process,” The committee’s joint statement read. “We appreciate every applicant’s willingness to serve the City of Chattanooga and offer our congratulations to the three finalists. Each of them brings decades of experience and a thorough knowledge of law enforcement to the position. Any of them would make an incredible leader for the department.”
Chamberlain has worked in law enforcement for over 33 years. He has worked a wide variety of assignments including patrol, gang enforcement, use of force investigations, counter terrorism and SWAT. Chamberlain has ascended within the ranks of the LAPD and now has over 1,800 officers under his command.
During his tenure with the department, Chamberlain has implemented several new programs including operation ceasefire, the major incident response team and domestic violence intervention. In addition, he currently serves as the homeless coordinator for the entire LAPD, where he has developed new systems, partnerships and protocols for serving the homeless population in Los Angeles.
Chamberlain has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and a master’s degree in organizational leadership from Union Institute and University.
McPherson has 25 years of experience in law enforcement. He started with the CPD in 1992 as a patrol officer and was promoted in 1995 to investigator with the narcotics unit. After five years, McPherson was promoted to sergeant of the fugitive division, where he worked in partnership with the DEA, FBI and others to apprehend suspects wanted for committing violent crimes.
From 2002 to 2006, McPherson supervised several other units before being promoted to lieutenant of special investigations. In 2012, he was promoted to captain of special investigations, where he supervised all activities of the special investigations and uniformed service patrol divisions.
In May of 2016, McPherson was promoted to assistant chief of the criminal investigations bureau, where he was commander of all criminal investigations. McPherson is pursuing his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Bethel University.
Roddy manages four assistant chiefs, eight captains and 19 lieutenants. He has operational responsibility for all 486 sworn officers and 100 non-sworn employees of the department.
During his 23 years with the CPD, Roddy has worked his way up the ranks from patrol officer. He has served as the captain over several divisions, including uniformed services and internal affairs.
In his current role, he has helped lead several of former Chief Fred Fletcher’s directives, including focusing on data and technology driven policing, developing the predictive community and intelligence-led policing and creating a new mission, vision and set of values for the department. Roddy has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Middle Tennessee State University.
The Mayor will begin conducting final interviews with these individuals and make his selection to lead the department in the next two weeks. Once the mayor makes his selection, the appointment will be added to the City Council agenda for their consideration per the City Charter.
Source: City of Chattanooga