KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Chief of Police Paul Noel attended his first meeting with the Police Advisory and Review Committee on Thursday. The group is made up of citizens and meets quarterly to discuss the Knoxville Police Department's discipline processes, policies and procedures.
During the meeting, he announced that Assistant Chief Mark Fortner would oversee the Internal Affairs unit, which conducts investigations into allegations of officer misconduct. He also said that he added another investigator to the unit, hoping to speed up investigations.
"This is an opportunity for us to be transparent with the community, and really go over the internal affairs cases, to really talk about why we do certain things in these cases," he said.
The announcement came after now-former Deputy Chief Ron Green retired while he was being investigated for five allegations of sexual misconduct. Five questions directed at Chief Noel were centered around Green.
"Accountability starts at every level, it starts at myself and it goes down through the entire organization," said Noel.
A KPD sergeant filed the first of five sexual misconduct claims against Green on Aug. 13, 2021. He was immediately placed on administrative leave, but the investigation took months. 10News learned that Green was frustrated by the process in text messages obtained by reporters.
His interview continuously were pushed back and in December, he chose to retire "rather than dragging those out and causing further embarrassment to his fellow officers."
Eve Thomas was the chief of police at the time and said that the investigation was almost finished. Green was paid more than $30,000 from the department while on administrative leave.
"Senior leadership needs to be very, very responsive and very swift when these incidents do occur," said Noel.
He is also welcoming the Executive Director of PARC, Tiffani Davidson, to take a more active role in the internal affairs unit.
"We're talking about allowing Executive Director Davidson to actually sit in and observe disciplinary hearings," he said. "It's never been done before in the history of both organizations."