UPDATED: Audit finds police department likely falsified inventory report

Former Police Chief Bobby Dodd and his command staff failed to return city iPads

photo Chattanooga police Chief Bobby Dodd speaks during a news conference at the Chattanooga Police Services Center in 2012.

Updated at 5:50 p.m. to include a comment from current police chief Fred Fletcher.

Updated at 6:11 p.m. to include former chief Bobby Dodd's decision not to comment.

A City Audit released today found that when former Police Chief Bobby Dodd and his command staff retired in December they helped themselves to more than $3,000 of city-owned iPads, and that someone in the department later falsified the inventory report.

When reached by phone, Dodd declined to comment.

During a standard wireless audit related to the Chattanooga Police Department, Auditor Stan Sewell reported that the five iPads - each costing $625 - purchased for the police command staff couldn't be found. He also found that an April 2014 inventory listed the iPads in the police departments possession but none of the devices could be accounted for.

When Interim Police Chief Stan Maffett was questioned, he said that Dodd and his staff kept the iPads but he was under the impression that they had permission from the mayor to do so.

Sewell concluded that either the department failed to perform inventory inspection or knowingly submitted a falsified report.

In response, the Police Department has since submitted formal letters to Dodd, Deputy Chief Tommy Kennedy, Assistant Chief Kirk Eidson and Assistant Chief Randy Dunn asking them to return the equipment.

Fred Fletcher, the current police chief at the department, said the CPD has developed new procedures to protect the department from insider misconduct.

"We have an entirely new administration and an entirely new way to hold ourselves accountable," Fletcher said.

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