Chattanooga Police Department's First Black Female Chief Appointed From Atlanta PD

ATLANTA, GA — An Atlanta Police Department leader was picked to become the first Black woman to be Police Chief in Chattanooga, TN.

Deputy Chief Celeste Murphy, a 25-year veteran with the Atlanta Police Department, was named as his selection to helm the department earlier this week by Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly.

“Celeste rose through the ranks at the Atlanta Police Department, serving as patrol officer, detective, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, major and deputy chief,” Kelly said Tuesday at the announcement of his appointment which was broadcast on Chattanooga’s WDEF TV. “She has worked in or supervised nearly if not every division of the Atlanta Police Department.”

Kelly’s appointment of Murphy, who was one of four finalists, still requires approval from the Chattanooga City Council, according to the Chattanooga Times Fre Press. If approved, however, her salary will be $165,000 a year.

Murphy replaces outgoing Chief David Roddy, and will take over the Chattanooga force with several key priorities in mind, she told reporters Tuesday.

“My focus in Chattanooga is going to be in three key areas that were mentioned: violent crime reduction, community policing, and of course youth engagement,” she said.

History-making Career In Atlanta

Atlanta Police applauded Murphy’s appointment.

“We want to congratulate Deputy Chief Celeste Murphy on her historic appointment to the position of chief of the Chattanooga Police Department,” an Atlanta Police statement said. “She has been a beacon of light and a go-to source for wisdom and knowledge within our organization, but it is her spirit that makes her so special. She is genuinely kind, and personable, which is sometimes rare at her level. She leaves behind an impressive legacy at APD, having touched the lives of the executive command staff, supervisors, and officers, many of whom, she has worked with, trained and mentored for over two decades.”

A New York City native, Murphy earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics from Syracuse University and a Masters Degree in Criminal Justice from Saint Leo University and joined Atlanta Police in 1997.

“I wanted to be a police officer from actually watching TV, looking at ‘C.O.P.S.’ and ‘NY City Blue,’ she said in a September 2020 in-house interview. “It really boiled down some of the issues of dealing with the people that are the most vulnerable in our communities, and I developed somewhat of a passion that transcended itself in my career. One of the places I worked in, the Special Victims Unit, kind of tapped into why I thought about being a police officer, which was to help people.”

Most recently Murphy was deputy chief over Atlanta Police Field Operations, the largest division of the department which encompasses a staff of nearly 900 and includes the 9-1-1 center, the street-level violent crime APEX unit, and the general investigations unit. She was the seventh woman in APD history to command a precinct and the first woman to command two precincts.

“There's always the pressure of being a female on a department that's majority male, especially being a Black female,” Murphy said. “You always raised that you have to be better, that you have to do more. You have to be ahead of the game all the time. Quite honestly, I tell people all the time I'm always just in competition with myself. I don't compete against anybody else. So I try to just keep driving and pushing because that's how I was raised.”

What Murphy Brings to the Table

Chattanooga Deputy City Administrator Erskine Oglesby said he was excited to see Murphy’s leadership take shape.

“I believe her vision when enacted, where everybody buys into, that's going to take our city to the next level as far as solving some of the issues we have with crime and some of the social concerns that we have,” Oglesby said

Murphy said her goal was to emphasize community policing to create a cooperative effort to public safety.

“This is a big deal to me,” she said. “And I'm focused on healthy police-community relationships. And as chief, I’ll bring every resource, every relationship, and keep our city and our neighborhoods safe. We're going to expose the humanity in each other by embracing what we have in common.”