The department had no chief of police until 1997 when J. L. Dotson was appointed by Mayor Jon Kinsey. Chief Dotson worked vigorously to bring about many changes to the department's organizational structure. The department began to pursue national accreditation and as a result the entire police manual was reviewed and re-written. Chief Dotson pressed for increased salaries and educational opportunities for Chattanooga Police officers as well as improvement of the department's outdated computer system. The command structure was changed and the number of Deputy Chief positions was reduced from three to two. The new organizational structure took effect early in 2000. 

In March of 2001 the Chattanooga Police Department was officially Accredited by CALEA (the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies), thus placing it in the top three percentile of police agencies nation wide thanks to Chief Dotson's initiatives and the hard work of every person in the department.  These standards hold our agency accountable on a national scale and bring us in line with the most modern departments across the country.  These standards will be reviewed every three years in order to retain our accreditation, as was done recently in March of 2004 when the CALEA Commission announced our re-accreditation after a thorough on-site review process involving not just internal documentation and practices, but external review via citizen input as well.

In January of 2004, Chief Dotson expressed his desire to retire, to the Department and settled into retirement after 30-plus years in the profession.  The Chattanooga Police Department came under the leadership of a new administration when Mayor Bob Corker announced in the following month that he had selected Steve Parks(who had been serving as Deputy Chief of Investigations) to be Chattanooga’s new Chief of Police after an initially tumultuous search.    Among his first acts, Chief Parks reorganized the command structure of the Administration.  Reporting directly to Chief Parks is an Executive Chief who oversees the day-to-day running of the department; Captain Freeman Cooper agreed to serve in that role.  Reporting directly to Executive Chief Cooper is Deputy Chief Charles Cooke(formerly the head of Uniform Services), the Deputy Chief of Administration and Support, and Captain Skip Vaughn was named as the Deputy Chief of Operations--the combination of what was formerly the Uniform Services and Investigative Services Commands, making this the first time in decades such divisions were brought under one 'roof'.

Mayor Corker said, “I am very excited about the strong team that Chief Parks will put in place and am confident that together they will lead the Department in a way that enhances the safety and security of all our citizens.”

     The future of the Chattanooga Police Department is guided by its mission statement and the credo of "Courage, Duty, and Respect".  New initiatives are being undertaken every day, and old initiatives are re-evaluated and not forgotten.  We are constantly striving to move forward as a professional Police Department, and we're excited by the future ahead of us; we hope the insight to our past contained herein has been useful and enlightening, and we are eager to add to this as we make more advancements into the future!