March 20, 2025
By: Dwayne Page
Six months after getting the job Kenneth (K.D.) Smith is out as the Alexandria Police Chief.
By a vote of 4 to 2, the Alexandria Aldermen Thursday night following a disciplinary hearing voted to terminate Chief Smith. Alderman Luke Prichard made the motion which received a second by Alderman Bobby Simpson. Others voting for termination were Aldermen Tiffany Robinson and Jonathon Tripp. Aldermen Sherry Tubbs and Jeff Ford voted against termination.
A week ago, Mayor Beth Tripp issued a written reprimand of Chief Smith and placed him on suspension without pay until Thursday night’s disciplinary hearing before the mayor and aldermen at city hall.
The mayor’s written reprimand or write-ups are based on alleged events which occurred on November 30, 2024, December 14, 2024, March 10, 2025, and March 13, 2025.
The mayor’s written reprimand alleges as follows: “Resident complaints on several occasions; telling residents city information; Making workplace intolerable; Making workers and myself (mayor) feel unsafe (This isn’t the first time. I gave several warnings on your temper and voice getting loud); Body language shows anger; Not following chain of command on several occasions; Talked with you several times trying to get you to calm down; Many residents have complained to me about you”.
During the hearing Thursday night, Chief Smith claimed the mayor’s allegations in the reprimand are without merit and lack any supporting documentation. Smith contends he has not violated any laws, ordinances, or city policies and procedures and was not provided specifics of any complaints even after filing a grievance with the city. Chief Smith went further, claiming the mayor violated state law by denying him his rights under the Tennessee Law Enforcement Discipline, Accountability, and Due Process Act.
“There are no supporting documents available to support these false allegations,” said Chief Smith. “There are no laws or ordinances listed that I violated. I filed a grievance with the city that was turned in on Monday concerning the reprimand. There are some things I requested in the grievance process including a detailed documentation of each citizen or employee’s complaint filed with city hall; detailed documentation of alleged release of city business to citizens; detailed documentation of any alleged chain of command violation; detailed documentation or evidence of intolerable workplace allegations; and detailed documentation or evidence of alleged event dates (noted by the mayor). Detailed documents (in this case) must have included coinciding dates, times, locations, and parties involved and must have been provided by March 18, 2025 at 4 p.m. There have been three days for the city to get the proper documentation that I have requested be provided to me. Nothing has been provided. There is no documentation to support what has been alleged,” said Chief Smith.
“Tennessee Code Annotated Title 38 lays out the due process procedures for law enforcement officers. The mayor has violated this TCA code,” Chief Smith continued. “She has also attempted to fill my position as chief prior to this hearing. The grievance I filed at city hall requesting the detailed documentation also asked that the grievance be heard by a neutral decision-making party that has no vested interest in the outcome of this hearing. I am requesting that the city follow TCA Title 38’s due process rights for a police officer. That is state law. I am also requesting that this hearing be dismissed; that I be reinstated to full active duty to my position so I can continue to run the department to care for the citizens of this town which they deserve; and I request that I get the lost wages from the suspension reinstated to me,” said Chief Smith.
Alderman Jeff Ford questioned the mayor why any complaints regarding the police chief had not been brought to the attention of the aldermen before now.
“How come I found out about this on Facebook and not from you” asked Alderman Ford.
“Because you don’t find out things from me until meetings,” replied Mayor Tripp
“How come we get all this stuff at (this) meeting and not prior,” Ford asked. “So, we are going to vote on this guy’s future based on some stack of papers that you throw in front of us”. You are not ever going to communicate any personnel issues that is this big of a deal? This much stuff has happened since this man has taken office and we have not discussed it in any meeting? We have had a lot of meetings since you have been mayor. You have this much stuff and it has never been brought up ever,” said Alderman Ford,
“Like I said you can discuss it among yourselves,” added Mayor Tripp
Chief Smith also took issue with another matter referred to during the meeting which was not specifically noted in the mayor’s reprimand last Thursday and one that he (Smith) had not been prepared to address regarding his spending practices. Among the documents Chief Smith had been given during the hearing was an email message by the mayor which had also previously been sent to him regarding a city purchasing policy stating “I have been informed that any time any department makes a purchase you need to get it approved and once approved, need to get receipts from purchases no matter the amount”.
“Receipts, we don’t ever get any financials here (council meetings)”, said Alderman Ford.
“Yes, we have provided financials before,” answered Mayor Tripp.
“But we haven’t seen any of this though (information about certain police department spending),” added Alderman Tubbs.
“Correct, those are things that were not asked from y’all (aldermen) that was over the amount that should have been spent,” said Mayor Tripp.
In one case, Chief Smith told the local media after the meeting Thursday night that he had two police department vehicles recently serviced and tires replaced at a Gordonsville business rather than one in Alexandria, but Smith claims the mayor knew about it and approved it. “Standing right outside the department was me, two other officers, and the mayor. I told her and she said oh yeah get the tires we have to have them. We were doing business in Alexandria too, but I was trying to help save the city money. The mayor later said the city had a contract with that Alexandria business (servicing patrols cars), but they don’t have a contract. I didn’t know at that time that I had to get approval or inform somebody where I was getting service done to patrol cars because that is my responsibility and part of my duties,” said Chief Smith.
In another case, Chief Smith said “we also got two shipping containers to use for storage given to us from the city of Laverne and we had a tow truck bring them here but that was paid out of the drug fund. I brought that up in a meeting. I even asked her (mayor) about putting them beside the bassoons shop. She said oh yeah,” said Chief Smith.
After the meeting, Chief Smith read through the additional complaints handed to him during the hearing and told the local media that anything brought up after his suspension should have been considered null and void with regard to any action taken by the board last night.