Crafty. A really nerdy computer whiz. Determined. Perceptive. Adaptable. Witty. Master of one-line humor. Intense. Reliable. Thrives on tough investigations. A digger extraordinaire.
Well, who have we here?
Who we have here is an “Our Town Hero” – Detective Brian Foulks, a 20-year veteran of the Knoxville Police Department (KPD), doing his thing in the Investigations Bureau’s Property Crimes Unit. Foulks was recently honored as the department’s 2025 Officer of the Year. A major honor for a major professional doing what he loves.
Det. Brian Foulks with his 2025
KPD Officer of the Year award
He’s a go-to guy for investigating and solving car and truck thefts, and throw in utility trailers for good measure. They too vanish.
This 48-year-old Knoxville native and Fulton High School graduate’s work at KPD has included School Resource Officer assignments at Central and Bearden high schools (three years at each), a patrolman for three years and he’s now in his eighth year as a detective. Foulks is also a presence at KPD’s Training Academy, sharing his knowledge base with new recruits about how to conduct interviews and interrogations.
Let’s cut to the chase and share the details about why he’s the Officer of the Year:
- He investigated 167 auto theft cases in 2025 and cleared 46% of them, nearly triple the national clearance rate.
- Serves as a resource for colleagues in the Property Crimes Unit in search warrant and subpoena drafting, where he is considered a “subject-matter expert.”
- Is the Investigations Bureau representative in KPD’s ongoing transition to a new records management system, ensuring the unit’s needs are met in the new system.
- Lead detective in two significant investigations. The first was an auto repair shop engaged in large-scale fraud and theft, resulting in 21 felony indictments involving 17 victims. The second investigation involved three individuals operating in Knoxville, Alcoa, Knox County, Blount County, and Sevier County. They were ultimately identified by Foulks and were stealing vehicles, then using the stolen vehicles to commit burglaries in surrounding jurisdictions and abandoning the stolen vehicles in Knoxville. His investigation resulted in 24 local charges and around 60 additional charges in surrounding counties.
- Stolen cars usually end up in “chop shops” where cars and trucks are stripped of their parts to be sold. He says Knoxville has no chop shops, but Cocke County does along with Memphis, Atlanta and, he says, “Texas is big on chop shops.”
KPD Det. Sgt. Pete Franzen nominated Foulks for the Officer of the Year award. About Foulks he wrote, in part: “….Detective Foulks consistently demonstrates a selfless, team-centered approach to his work. He’s always among the first to volunteer, whether for routine tasks like evidence inventory or for highly technical assignments requiring advanced expertise. He readily takes on difficult, time-intensive cases and is highly effective at managing large-scale crime spree investigations involving multiple suspects and incidents. His ability to leverage all available resources continues to make him a stronger and more dynamic investigator.”
After graduating from Fulton in 1996, he joined the U.S. Army and became a Calvary Scout, serving at both Fort Knox, IN, and Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, AK. In 1998, he was deployed to Egypt on a peacekeeping mission, and in 2004, he was deployed to Iraq for 11 months as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He left active duty in 2000 and joined the 278th U.S. Army Cavalry Regiment in Clinton. In 2018, a year after joining Property Crimes, and he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from Bethel University in 2019. While in the National Guard, he worked for almost five years as a driver’s license examiner for the state of Tennessee.
Community service as a first responder seems to be part of the Foulks’ DNA. His late grandfather was a retired Knoxville Fire Dept. (KFD) Capt. Buddy Foulks. Uncle Mark Foulks was a deputy chief at KFD before becoming chief of the Greeneville fire department (2006-2015), then he was Murfreesboro’s chief from 2015-2022, and today is the fire chief in Mt. Juliet. Cousin Brad Anders is a retired KPD lieutenant. Today, he is Executive Director of the Knox County Emergency Communications District (E911).
His work on auto theft, he says, is what he has enjoyed the most during his career. “It’s an assignment I really love. It’s just part of my nature, I suppose, to find out how they did it, the thefts, and who did it. I love it.
This is my nerdy guy side. I have to answer these questions – who, what, when, why, and where? I love to dig out the details, and I’ll also say sometimes you just can’t figure it all out.”
Car and truck thieves can strike anywhere. Foulks has a list of high-target vulnerable places: Apartment complexes, motels, and hotels next to or adjacent to interstates; malls and shopping centers; cars left in driveways warming up on cold mornings that disappear; theft after trust cases where someone loans a car and never sees it again; parking garages at times; and churches.
And what types and makes of cars and trucks do the thieves target? Foulks said many Kias and Hyundais go missing around here. They are easy to steal due to a lack of anti-theft technology, he says. The trucks of choice are Chevrolets and Ford F-150s.
Working the auto theft beat keeps him on the phone too – he speaks almost daily to the Knox County Sheriff’s Office and its auto theft detectives, to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, and to the Tennessee Dept of Revenue and law enforcement in our surrounding counties. “We all work together and keep the information pipeline flowing. Exchanging information and working together is a big part of solving these crimes,” he added.
“There’s an element of luck that has a lot to do with it. We get a good lead from someone else, and that little clue may lead to a crew working in different counties, and then the case snowballs, and we keep digging and then make arrests,” Foulks explained.
Plus, he works more crimes than just auto theft – including forgery and fraud, counterfeit crimes and residential and business burglaries. “I’ve got a hand in a lot of different cases,” he says.
This Knoxville guy – who does not like to talk about himself — was reared in the Alice Bell and Oakwood/Lincoln Park neighborhoods. Away from work, he enjoys fishing alone for bass in the early morning hours on Melton Hill Lake in his 16-foot bass boat. He’s also a deer hunter and loves camping.
This on-the-job memory from Det. Franken speaks loudly about Foulks: “We were working an investigation (undercover) involving a theft case from an auto dealership and he was wiping down cars with a rag, trying to look like an employee. The next thing I know he’s got the hatchback open on another car and he’s cleaning away, like it’s his real job. I am laughing to myself thinking, ‘He can’t do anything halfway.’ The man is driven every day on every case and that’s what makes him a great detective. He’s going to do everything possible on every case.”
To that he’d probably say, “I can’t help myself. It’s who I am and what I do.”
(Editor’s Note: The Knoxville Police Department (KPD) selected a pair of officers to be honored as its 2025 Officers of the Year — Det. Brian Foulks and Officer Wesley Williams. Today we feature Foulks as “Our Town Hero” and we will feature Williams in a few weeks. They are both to be congratulated and celebrated.)
Tom King has been the editor of newspapers in Texas and California, and also worked in Tennessee and Georgia. If you have someone you think we should consider featuring, please email Tom at the link with his name or text him at 865-659-3562.
Aubrey’s Restaurants sponsors Our Town Hero.
