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Statement from Chief Paul Noel Concerning KNS Article

Chief Paul Noel has released the following statement in response to the recently-published Knox News Sentinel article regarding the departure of former Deputy Chief Brooklyn Belk:

After reading the recently-published Knox News Sentinel article concerning the departure of former Deputy Chief of Professional Standards Brooklyn Belk, I feel compelled to respond publicly with the facts, some of which were known to KNS but omitted from the story.

The email that Brooklyn received was vile and hate-filled. That is a non-negotiable fact, and our department and the involved City departments acknowledged that and treated it with the seriousness it warranted.

The email was reviewed by our Organized Crime Unit and independently by the FBI to determine if it met the criteria for further criminal investigation and, unfortunately, it didn’t meet that threshold.

That review uncovered no evidence whatsoever to support the idea that the email was sent by a city or KPD employee, a fact that was only glossed over in the KNS story. In fact, based on similar trademarks and characteristics, we believe the email was sent by an individual who has been sending similarly hateful messages to city employees for several years.

Once being notified of the email, the City Law Department and IT Department also acted swiftly to block the person who emailed Brooklyn. After that email user was blocked, they attempted to send more than 20 emails to other city email addresses, to include Mayor Kincannon. That fact was known by KNS but not included in the story.

I personally, as well as several other key members of our department, met with Brooklyn numerous times throughout the process to better understand her perspective and reaction to the email, discuss next steps and openly talk about what she needed and expected from us as an agency. I believe those conversations and the outcomes of those conversations reflected that Brooklyn was supported, valued and heard, and that we as an agency and Command Staff were committed to protecting her.

To imply that those conversations didn’t happen, that we dismissed her reaction to the email, or that she wasn’t widely supported by our department is completely disingenuous.

I also shared a department-wide message condemning the email that Brooklyn received. Below is what I communicated to the entire department in regards to the email:

On that same line of thought and in closing – most of you, I assume, have seen the vile and hateful email that Deputy Chief Belk received over the weekend. In 2023, it is shocking to see such overt racism, and I am deeply sorry that one of our own was the recipient of it. I also know that, unfortunately, Chief Belk is not the only member of our department who has to see or hear hateful and ignorant rhetoric based only upon their immutable characteristics.

Please know that we will not take matters of that nature lightly. We all know that this profession is not for the faint of heart, but that doesn’t mean that we should tolerate or shrug off that type of behavior as merely a hazard of the job. It is incumbent upon us as the leaders of the organization and each of you to recognize the real emotional and psychological harm this causes and respond appropriately to support and protect your colleagues.

KNS had that message but chose not to include it in their coverage.

The KNS story also relied heavily on the thoughts of two former Knoxville Police Department employees who were not involved in any capacity in our response to the email or the conversations that took place internally. Those individuals unfortunately chose to talk about the situation without anything approaching an understanding of the totality of the facts.

The KNS story unfortunately undermines the great work of the men and women of the KPD and distracts from the fact that we are making real strides to improve as an agency.

Crime is trending in a positive direction, highlighted most notably by a current 25-percent reduction in homicides and a double-digit reduction in high-priority property crimes. As of now, the Homicide Unit has solved 75 percent of this year’s murders, which is well above the national average. Our Officers are both effectively reducing violent crime and identifying those responsible for committing it at a high level.

Our Officers are doing an exceptional job of positively engaging with the community, not only in their daily interactions but in their efforts to address the public safety and quality of life issues impacting our communities.

With that, we acknowledge that that we do, in some ways, have a troubled past. That’s why we took it upon ourselves to voluntarily bring in consultants to complete the climate assessment that was conducted last fall, as well as the deeper departmental assessment that is happening now. For those assessments, we are asking outside consultants to take a deep dive into our department and how we operate, and give us the objective, sometimes harsh truth about what needs to be fixed. The goal of those assessments is not only to help us build policies and procedures that are in line with nationwide best practices, but to hear directly from our employees about how we can improve the environment that they work within.

Those type of assessments are almost never voluntary, but we chose to pursue those because our team and department are entirely committed to constant improvement and forward-looking accountability.

In addition to that, nearly 100 KPD employees have received the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) training and we anticipate that the entire department will have received the training by the end of the year.

We have made a lot of changes over the last year-plus, and while there has been some expected pushback and resistance, our Officers have by and large been adaptable and supportive. Through all of the changes, they have shown incredible commitment to our mission of meaningfully reducing crime and improving the lives of Knoxvillians.

I am proud of our agency and the men and women who work here.

Posted by serland On 21 August, 2023 at 2:37 PM