Knoxville Police Chief Paul Noel has been suspended without pay for one month after sending an inappropriate text message to a subordinate officer, Mayor Indya Kincannon announced Thursday at a hastily called news conference. The briefing, held at the city's Public Safety Complex, had no publicly discussed topic beforehand, fueling speculation before Kincannon revealed the reason for the meeting.
The announcement came as a surprise to residents who had watched Kincannon and Noel present a united front on public safety for the past four years. As reported by the Knoxville News Sentinel, the mayor's spokesperson had said beforehand that the news was not related to that day's election, though the actual subject of the sudden briefing was not disclosed until Kincannon spoke. Noel, who was sworn in as Knoxville's 27th police chief in June 2022 after Mayor Kincannon selected him following a national search, according to background from his department, had spent more than 25 years with the New Orleans Police Department before taking the Knoxville post.
A Reformer's Record Now Under Its Own Scrutiny
Noel arrived in Knoxville with a reputation as a reform-minded leader, having served as Deputy Superintendent and Chief of Detectives in New Orleans. Soon after taking command, he overhauled KPD's internal oversight structure, replacing the department's legacy Internal Affairs Unit with a newly created Office of Professional Standards designed to separate applicant vetting from misconduct inquiries, according to reporting from Compass. In July 2022, under Kincannon and Noel, KPD also became the first law enforcement agency in Tennessee to adopt the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement Project, a peer-intervention ethics program Noel had helped develop and teach while still in New Orleans, per the City of Knoxville.
The department's own Code of Conduct, effective as of January 2025, explicitly requires personnel to remain truthful in departmental business and to maintain courteous, professional relationships with subordinates and peers. Noel had previously invoked that same code when disciplining officers under his command, making Thursday's announcement a notable turn for a chief who built much of his tenure on enforcing exactly these standards.
Not Noel's First Brush With Internal Scrutiny
This is not the first time Noel's conduct with a subordinate has drawn scrutiny. In April 2023, an independent ethics investigation by outside special counsel cleared Noel of ethics violations after a complaint concerning a private home rental agreement with a subordinate officer, examining whether the housing arrangement had influenced promotion decisions within the department.
Noel has also shown a willingness to publicly discipline others for internal policy violations. In May 2023, he demoted a sergeant and suspended two officers without pay for up to 10 days following an Internal Affairs investigation tied to the in-custody death of Lisa Edwards, calling the officers' conduct completely unacceptable even though an autopsy found Edwards died of natural causes, Compass reported at the time.
What Happens During the Suspension
Kincannon operates under Knoxville's strong-mayor system of government, sworn in as the city's 69th mayor in December 2019, which grants her direct administrative oversight over department heads like Noel. That authority is what allowed her to issue the suspension without pay directly, rather than through a lengthier internal process.
Municipal police personnel in Knoxville, including chiefs, are subject to Civil Service Merit Board rules that establish administrative due process rights and appeal procedures for disciplinary suspensions, meaning Noel could seek review of the mayor's decision. It remains an open question whether Noel will pursue such an appeal, and city officials have not said whether an interim chief will be designated to lead KPD during the 30-day suspension period.
The suspension lands at an otherwise high point for Kincannon's public safety agenda. In January, the mayor announced that KPD had reached full officer staffing for the first time in over a decade, a milestone Hoodline reported came alongside starting officer salary increases to roughly $58,000, following years in which the department operated dozens of officers below authorized strength. How this disciplinary action affects that momentum, and KPD's command structure in the near term, is not yet clear.
