Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero and Police Chief Eve Thomas named Knoxville Police Department Officer James Gadd the October Officer of the Month.  Officer Gadd has been with KPD since March 1995.

On October 1, 2018, a call came into dispatch regarding a subject attempting to pass a stolen check at the Regions Bank located on Chapman Highway.  Officer Gadd located the suspect inside the bank and placed him into custody.  Through the course of his investigation, Officer Gadd was able to determine that two female accomplices also involved in the crime were still on bank property.  Officer Gadd located a 2011 Honda sedan occupied by the two female suspects at the rear of the bank.  The Honda was discovered to be stolen.  Officer Gadd requested a K-9 sniff of the vehicle which resulted in a positive alert.  Through the course of his investigation, Officer Gadd located narcotics in the vehicle along with numerous other indicators of identity theft, forgery, and theft. 

Chief Thomas said, “While searching the vehicle Officer Gadd discovered a ledger book that contained entries of email addresses tied to people’s names other than the suspect’s names from the vehicle.  Officer Gadd turned the book over to fraud investigators.” 

Upon further investigation, it was discovered that a Gmail account that had been written into the ledger book had been derived from an elderly victim’s full name.  After confirming the victim did not have the Gmail account, the investigators learned that earlier in the morning two accounts had been set up by using the false information so that money could be wired to them.  The suspects were only waiting on confirmation numbers from MoneyGram and Western Union.

Chief Thomas said, “Investigators are certain the suspects would have used this online account to drain the victim’s bank account since they already had her personal information.”


The three suspects were charged with various crimes including Theft, Auto Theft, Forgery, Identity Theft, and Drug Possession charges.  

Chief Thomas said, “Officer Gadd’s response to this initial crime and doing a thorough investigation led to the arrest and further investigation into criminal activity that was victimizing unsuspecting citizens, particularly the elderly.  Congratulations on a job well done.”