Chief Reed Applying for Cleveland Job

East Ridge Police Chief J.R. Reed has applied for the position of Chief of Police in Cleveland, Tenn.

According to the Cleveland Daily Banner, Reed is one of almost three dozen applicants for the position.

Reed was named police chief in East Ridge in January of 2014. He has been an officer with the department in the city since 1988.

On Tuesday evening, Chief Reed said he had no comment about applying for the job with Cleveland.

Interim City Manager Mike Williams said he was unaware of Reed applying for another job.

Williams, who is out of town, said via text, he had no idea what was going on. As did Mayor Brent Lambert.

“I can’t begrudge anyone who seeks to do what he feels is best for him and/or his family,” Mayor Lambert said in a text message to East Ridge News Online. “Whatever the outcome, I appreciate Chief Reed’s service to our community.”

What are your thoughts on the possible departure of the Police Chief? Sound off in the comments section below.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.