Beadle, Noeller Graduate from Police Academy

Contributed photo – Brendan Beadle, left and Michael Noeller are the newest members of the East Ridge Police Department.

The East Ridge Police Department recently added two new officers.

According to a press release from the department, Brendan Beadle and Michael Noeller graduated from the Regional Law Enforcement Training Academy at Walters State Community College on December 8, 2017.

“We congratulate them on this accomplishment and look forward to them working in the department,” said Assistant Police Chief Stan Allen.

According to information on Walters State’s Website, the academy is an intensive nine week, 494 hour course of instruction on basic law enforcement. Upon completion of the academy the student will be awarded the Technical Certificate in Basic Law Enforcement Officer Education and is eligible to apply for certification by the Tennessee Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) Commission as a certified peace officer in the state of Tennessee after being employed by a law enforcement agency.

The two new officers will now hit the streets and patrol with department Field Training Officers for a number of weeks, officials said.

The recent new-hires brings the total number of sworn police officers in East Ridge to 43, officials said. Chief Allen said that under Chief J.R. Reed’s tenure, the department has added more than two dozen officers to the force.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.