City of Lenoir City

From The Chief’s Office

The main thrust of a peace officer’s duties consists of an attempt to enforce the law. In our application of the law, we must do it within the legal spirit so clearly set forth by the framers of the Bill of Rights, which was an original part of our Constitution. That bill has as its purpose elevating the rights of each citizen to a position co-equal with the state which might accuse him. Its purpose is to provide for an enforcement of the law with fundamental fairness and equity. Because of the bill of Rights, the dignity of the individual person in America was placed in an almost sacred position of importance. A peace officer’s enforcement should not be done in grudging adherence to the legal rights of the accused, but in sincere spirit of seeing that every accused person is given all of his rights as far as it is within the powers of the police. In the discharge of our enforcement of criminal statutes, the peace officer must scrupulously avoid any conduct which would make him a violator of the law. The solution of a crime, or the arrest of a lawbreaker, can never justify the peace officer’s committing a felony as an expedient for the enforcement of the law. We peace officers should do our utmost to foster a reverence for the law. We can start best by displaying a reverence for the legal rights of our fellow citizens and a reverence for the law itself.

USEFUL LINKS

• Sexual Assault Center of East TN
• Coalition Against Domestic Violence
• FBI Top 10 List
• Officer Down Memorial Page
• Tennessee Bureau of Investigation
• Tennessee Sex Offender Registry
• Missing Children