Board debates law enforcement needs amid growth
During a workshop retreat of the Farragut Board of Mayor and Aldermen held Friday, Jan. 23, at Turkey Creek Medical Center, Town Administrator David Smoak proposed paying for two Knox County Sheriff’s Office deputies to provide additional service to the town.
With Farragut’s growth, Smoak said the Town is experiencing increased traffic and speeding. He also cited recent incident reports showing a rise in mail thefts that have led to check fraud.
A while back, “the mayor and I met with Bernie Lyon, trying to get additional services for the town,” Smoak said, referring to the former Knox County Sheriff’s Office chief deputy who has since died. The discussions focused on adding patrol officers within Farragut, he said.
Smoak also noted concerns about the loss of the sheriff’s office precinct location on Parkside Drive, which was moved to Cedar Bluff.
“At the same time, we’ve had a captain in place in the Farragut precinct for 20 years,” he said. “There have been different captains during that time. Now, that captain [position] has been taken out, and there’s no real liaison for Farragut.
“So we have no direct contact with the Knox County Sheriff's Office going forward,” Smoak said. He added that upcoming elections for sheriff could be important for determining future cooperation.
In the meantime, Smoak said the board could review town revenues to determine whether it could help fund additional services and continue discussions with the sheriff’s office.
“It won’t be this sheriff; it may have to be the next one,” Mayor Ron Williams said.
The board also discussed the town’s red-light camera, or automated traffic enforcement, program.
“This is a program we’ve had in place probably since 2008,” Smoak said, noting it was adopted after a fatal crash at the intersection of Kingston Pike and Concord Road. He said the system has been effective in slowing traffic and increasing driver awareness.
However, Smoak said the program has faced challenges in recent years. In 2024, the town lost a significant amount of money operating the system, and it again operated at a loss in 2025.
Part of the loss stemmed from staffing added in 2022 due to a high number of violations, he said. The Town had a part-time officer then added another but the second one had left about a year ago.
“We haven’t had as many violations,” Smoak said. He attributed part of the decline to vendor issues, saying potential nonviolations are no longer being filtered out before being sent to town staff for review. He also noted that fewer people are paying citations, with the payment rate now below 50 percent.
The town currently has a month-to-month contract with its vendor, leaving the board to decide whether to discontinue the program or seek proposals from a new provider.
“This is a major safety program,” Smoak said.
“I like the program; I don’t like the loss,” Vice Mayor Scott Meyer said. “We don’t have a police department; we don’t have anybody to enforce speeding [laws]. It’s a good program. I don’t think it needs to be replaced. I think we need to do something.”
Board members generally agreed on the value of the program, particularly in addressing speeding by young drivers, and supported exploring a new vendor.
