On Wednesday, the Chattanooga Hamilton Place Rotary Club presented Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office Law Enforcement Chaplain Jonathan Parker their prestigious Service Above Self in Law Enforcement Award at their monthly luncheon held at the Metro Tab Church.
Each year, the Chattanooga Hamilton Place Rotary Club takes the opportunity to recognize members of their local law enforcement community who have gone above and beyond to serve the needs of their respective communities and embody their organization’s motto of “Service Above Self.”
Chaplain Parker is the HCSO’s Senior Law Enforcement Services Chaplain and oversees both the Law Enforcement Chaplains Program and the Employee Health and Wellness Program. Chaplain Parker began his career with the HCSO as a School Resource Deputy (SRD) in 2017. Prior to his employment with the HCSO, he served as a School Resource Officer (SRO) for the City of Chattanooga. In 2019, he was selected to serve as the HCSO’s Senior Law Enforcement Chaplain and given operational oversight of the HCSO Law Enforcement Chaplains Program. HCSO Law Enforcement Chaplains serve not only the spiritual and emotional needs of HCSO personnel, but the citizens to which they serve. HCSO Chaplains assist victims and family members with death notifications, immediate spiritual needs at critical incidents, and help comfort those who are hurting and in need of assistance.
In 2021, Chief Deputy Austin Garrett cast the vision for the HCSO to adopt an Employee Health and Wellness initiative in order to focus on supporting our personnel holistically. Due to his personal ministry and training, Chaplain Parker was designated to lead the development and implementation of the HCSO Employee Health and Wellness Program. The program focuses on the physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing of our personnel and offers education, counseling, and peer-support based services to employees in need.
“Chaplain Parker’s values and selflessness embodies the true definition of a servant leader. His dedication, service and commitment to his family, the HCSO, and the citizens to which he serves exemplifies the Rotary’s motto of “Service Above Self,” stated Chief Deputy Austin Garrett.
Under Chaplain Parker, both the Law Enforcement Chaplains Program and the Employee Health and Wellness Program have become extremely successful and support the needs of not only HCSO employees, but the spiritual and emotional needs of our community. In his private life, Chaplain Parker serves as the Senior Pastor of COP Church where he ministers to the public. His diverse congregation at Cop Church includes a large number of our community’s law enforcement personnel and their families.
“On behalf of the Hamilton Place Rotary Club, we are pleased to be able to honor Chaplain Parker with this award. Law Enforcement Officers do so much to help others in our community and do not receive the recognition they deserve for their service,” stated Jim Glass, President of the Hamilton Place Rotary. “We created this award as a way to say thank you to the Law Enforcement Community and we hope that this will be a small step in the right direction to recognize the service they provide every day,” he further noted.
