Chaplain Unit Honored For Unselfish Dedication to KPD and Citizens of Knoxville

Communications Director

Kristin Farley
[email protected]
(865) 215-2589

400 Main St., Room 691
Knoxville, TN 37902

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Chaplain Unit Honored For Unselfish Dedication to KPD and Citizens of Knoxville

Posted: 08/01/2017
Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero and Chief David Rausch honored the KPD Chaplain Corps.  The chaplain corps is a support service for KPD employees and their families as well as the community in crisis situations.  

The chaplain corps is on-call to the department 24 hours a day seven days a week.  They represent different faiths while providing spiritual support and assistance to KPD officers or personnel and their families for personal needs such as marriage, family, illness, stress or grief counseling.  They also provide spiritual support and assistance to the community in crisis in response to death, accident, or other police calls in which a chaplain can be of assistance to the officers and the citizens.  

KPD Chaplains with Mayor Rogero and Chief Rausch

Chief Rausch said, “One amazing example of the work the chaplains do in our community occurred on February 6, 2017, when an officer responded to a welfare check at the Knoxville Area Rescue Ministries.”

Upon arrival, officers were met by a female who indicated she just came up from Atlanta a few days ago and was staying at the mission.  She had an interview on Wednesday the 8th where she would be applying for housing with KCDC.  The female admitted that she had gotten into several verbal arguments with the tenants at the mission, but that she along with her special needs three-year-old son and two-year-old daughter were the only ones being forced to leave the premises.  The officers saw that it was getting dark and that rain had started to fall. The female stated that all of her family were in Georgia and that she did not have any money with her.  She advised officers that her plan was to call her family in Georgia for aid, but that did not address their current situation where she found herself and her two children out in the rain with night approaching.  Officers tried calling all the local shelters, but there were no openings for the stranded family.  

Officers then spoke to the on call chaplain for the night, Chaplain Keith Price.  Chaplain Price showed compassion and expressed desire to explore ways to help the family.  Chaplain Price made a phone call and contacted the officer stating that he was able to use money from a benevolent fund to help the female and her children stay at a motel for the night.  Officers then transported the family to a motel on Merchant Drive.  Chaplain Price contacted the motel and was told that they would not accept credit card payment over the phone.  Chaplain Price then selflessly advised officers that he would be leaving his residence in Lenoir City to pay the nightly fee for the motel room in person.  Chaplain Price's compassion and selfless action allowed the female and her two children a safe place to stay for the night.

Chief Rausch said, “This is just one outstanding example of many that KPD chaplains have exhibited over the years.  In 2016, the 30-member corps volunteered over 12,000 hours to the department and the citizens of Knoxville.  You can always count of the chaplain corps to be there on your worst day.”  


Click here to view a listing of KPD award winners.