Knoxville, TN (WOKI) The Knoxville Police Department’s Chief of Police is asking the city for almost $3 million for employee and officer raises.

KPD Chief Paul Noel, making his case to city leaders during a budget hearing on March 6, said that even with the new hires the department secured in 2023, the department had a net loss for employees, partly because officers moved to higher-paying agencies.

“We are losing officers to the Y-12, the plants because the pay is very, very significant, and we’ve lost officers to other agencies as well, agencies like the [Tennessee] Highway Patrol and University of Tennessee [Police Department] that pay more money than we do,” Noel said.

According to Noel, KPD has the lowest starting pay in the county and close to the lowest starting salary in the entire East Tennessee region.

Noel’s ask comes just under a year after Knox County Sheriff Tom Spangler went head-to-head with Mayor Glenn Jacobs over raises in the sheriff’s office.

Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon is expected to deliver her State of the City Address on April 26, the day the proposed budget will be released.