How we got here

Berke’s focused deterrence program, the Violence Reduction Initiative, had decidedly mixed results after launching in 2014. The premise was to offer gang members a choice: Give up guns and violence and get education, job training and referrals and other aid, or stay in the life and become the focus of police attention.

The rate of gang shootings and violence finally started to fall in December, and police point to a number of factors affecting the city’s violent crime rate.

Sgt. Josh May, head of the police department’s new gun unit, said in May the reduction is the hard-won result of a full-court press on multiple fronts. That includes the March indictment of 54 Athens Park Bloods gang members, the first prosecution of a Chattanooga street gang under the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act.

Meanwhile, the “carrot” of the carrot-and-stick approach fell into disarray early this year when the city council refused to vote on a $600,000, two-year contract with Father to the Fatherless [F2F].

The Berke administration said it wanted to add a focus on youth, and F2F already had a strong mentoring program in five schools where children are at risk.

But the council balked, upset over what members said was inadequate information about the contract and the providers. The city has been without a social services contract since then, although F2F has said it continues its programs on a volunteer basis.