Dodd, top staff kept city of Chattanooga iPads, audit shows

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

A city audit found that retired Chattanooga Police Chief Bobby Dodd and some of his command staff kept $2,500 worth of city-owned iPads when they retired.

Now current Chief Fred Fletcher says he wants the equipment back and will pursue criminal charges if necessary against his predecessor.

City Auditor Stan Sewell said the audit findings were reported to the state comptroller's office.

The audit released Thursday found that someone at the police department could have falsified the inventory record because the iPads were listed in April -- four months after Dodd retired -- as on file with the department.

But Dodd said Thursday night that he got permission from Jeff Cannon, then Mayor Andy Berke's chief innovation officer, to keep the equipment and he assumed it would be counted as surplus and reported to the Chattanooga City Council -- per state requirements.

Dodd said he wanted to keep his iPad because he had pages of notes that he needed to use to testify at trials in criminal cases and in city civil cases.

"This just doesn't make sense," Dodd said. "Somebody should have called me and said 'Do you have this iPad? We need to get it back.'"

State law says no city employee or official can purchase surplus property except at public auction. It also states that employees can't receive any money or compensation in addition to their salaries without City Council approval.

Cannon, who resigned in July, didn't return calls seeking comment Thursday. Berke spokeswoman Lacie Stone said Cannon told Sewell he had talked with Dodd about the retiring officers buying the iPads, but there was no document showing Cannon authorized them to keep city property.

Sewell also said he saw no documents that allowed Dodd and his command staff -- Deputy Chief Tommy Kennedy and assistant chiefs Kirk Eidson and Randy Dunn -- to keep the iPads after they retired Dec. 31.

Sewell found that nine days after they retired, Dodd sent a text to the three retired assistant chiefs and to interim Chief Stan Maffett saying he and his staff had permission to keep the iPads.

"I finally got an answer from Jeff Cannon about him working to surplus the iPads so the chiefs can keep them ... and he will send an email to Chief Maffett stating this," the text read.

But Sewell couldn't find such an email from Cannon to Maffett, and he said the text indicates Dodd and his staff had taken the iPads nine days earlier.

Maffett told the auditor he believed the mayor gave Dodd and his top staff permission to keep the equipment.

Sewell's audit also found the police department didn't have proper procedures in place to ensure the wireless devices were returned to the city when employees resigned or retired. The police department has 512 active wireless devices and in fiscal year 2014 spent nearly $268,500 on wireless devices and data services, excluding cellphone stipends.

Fletcher said that when he was appointed in June, he recognized the lack of controls in the police department and was planning to make changes even before the audit was unveiled. And in their response to the audit, city officials wrote that until the police department can create a centralized system for reporting inventory, the city's IT department will oversee all technology inventory, purchases and replacements.

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

Contact staff writer Joy Lukachick Smith at jsmith@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659.

Upcoming Events