Chattanooga’s mayor plans to renew Police Chief Celeste Murphy’s contract, a spokesperson said, after a report from the Chattanooga Times Free Press found she claimed primary residences in both Tennessee and Georgia.
Murphy was appointed by Mayor Tim Kelly in 2022, and her contract is up for renewal Thursday. It had not been renewed by the end of last week, according to Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Victor Miller.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press found that while registered to vote in Tennessee, Murphy continued to receive a homestead exemption, a tax break in Georgia meant for a person’s primary residence.
“As the [Chattanooga] Times Free Press’ story says, the city auditor found allegations about Chief Murphy’s residence to be unsubstantiated,” Eric Holl, a spokesperson for Kelly, said in an email. “We are confident Chief Murphy can meet legal residency requirements and address any issues with her out-of-date homestead exemption in Georgia.”
Meanwhile, police unions representing Chattanooga officers are calling for accountability and a renewed investigation into Murphy’s residency.
Chattanooga requires employees, including police, to live in Tennessee, according to the city’s code.
Stan Sewell, the city’s auditor who investigated an allegation that Murphy was living outside Tennessee last year, said in an email Wednesday his office has not been asked to look into the matter any further.
Miller did not respond to questions and requests for comment by phone and email Wednesday.
Murphy responds
Murphy posted a response to the Chattanooga Times Free Press report on social media Monday evening, largely echoing a statement she had issued to the newspaper.
“To set the record straight, I live and work in Chattanooga, and that’s where my primary residence is,” she said in the post. “I do still have family in Atlanta and do still own property there.”
The chief has a mailing address and a residence address listed on her Tennessee voter registration form, which is signed under penalty of perjury. The Chattanooga Times Free Press visited the two addresses for the Tuesday story. At one, the neighbors said the house was occupied by 20-to-30-year olds. At the other, a sergeant answered the door and was caring for his mother.
Murphy said she is a part of and has devoted herself to the Chattanooga community and has made herself available “by participating in face-to-face interactions with those” the department serves.
She said her job, like others at the department, comes with risks.
“We deal with violent criminals regularly,” Murphy said in the post. “There are extreme dangers in revealing where I lay my head, but rest assured, it is in the city that I serve.”
Murphy sent a similar message to the department’s employees in an email last week addressing the issue.
“To set the record straight, I’ll never hold you all to a standard that I’m not prepared to be held accountable for,” she wrote in the email, obtained by the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Last Tuesday, Murphy reportedly spoke to officers during pre-shift lineups to address claims about her residency.
Murphy also called a meeting that Wednesday, open to department employees, in which she focused on the department’s goals for 2024, according to officers. She did not address her residency during the meeting, according to officers.
Police unions
Board members of the local chapter of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers issued a statement last Wednesday, calling the chief’s residency situation a serious matter.
“While we expect accountability from all officers at all levels, the IBPO also wishes the process be the same in this case as any case, and that would be due process,” board members said in their statement.
The board said it would wait for an investigation and said it hopes that will be timely and efficient.
Board members of the local Fraternal Order of Police also responded to the paper’s report in an email to members last Tuesday, calling the story troubling.
“Our fear that Chief Murphy is an absentee chief who is not committed to this city or department may have been verified by this article,” President Chris Mullinix said in the email, which was released to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Board members asked for the allegations to be investigated by the department’s professional standards division and asked Kelly for a meeting on the subject, according to the email.
“It is of the utmost importance that our leadership is held to the same standard as our fellow officers and FOP members,” board members said.
One of 15 officers reassigned by Murphy in 2022 based on past sustained allegations of misrepresentation had been investigated and disciplined based on the residency requirement, according to attorney Janie Varnell, who represents Fraternal Order of Police members.
The officer was suspended for 40 hours in February 2022, before Murphy was appointed, after a 2021 internal investigation found he was living in both Tennessee and Georgia and misrepresented where he lived on department paperwork, Varnell said by phone.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press requested a copy of that investigation report last Wednesday and had not received a response as of press time.
Marie Mott
Marie Mott, a local activist running against Kelly for mayor in 2025, said Murphy’s conflicting residencies raise several questions for her.
“Frankly, as a young African American woman, I had the wind taken out of me,” she said by phone. “She’s the first Black woman in this role, they’re already expecting you to make a mistake.”
Mott said she wants to see Kelly address the situation publicly.
Police officers were heard discussing Murphy’s Chattanooga apartment and its reported lack of furniture on body camera footage from a July 2023 crash.
“Them talking about it means that the people in the rank and file below her are aware of what she’s doing,” Mott said, “to be discussing that among themselves and on camera.”
Mott said being ignorant of a law, like Georgia’s requirements for the tax break Murphy claims, doesn’t mean you can break it.
“Any tax professional would let you know, especially if you’re being transparent, that your working situation has changed from one state to another, that, ‘Hey, I don’t think we qualify for this anymore,” Mott said.
Murphy said last week she would talk with her tax preparer to make sure she’s compliant on her Georgia property taxes.
Credit: Chattanooga Times Free Press
Credit: Chattanooga Times Free Press
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