Addressing gangs
Historically, gang members make up a tiny fraction of the city of Chattanooga’s population, comprising less than half a percent of its approximately 180,000 residents.
Over the past decade, elected officials have attempted to curb gun violence through a series of initiatives focused on reforming members of that group.
February 2011: A public safety committee composed of elected officials and law enforcement experts convenes to brainstorm solutions to shootings. It meets throughout the spring and summer.
November 2011: Assistant District Attorney Boyd Patterson agrees to establish a gang violence task force using the comprehensive gang model, a blueprint developed by the National Gang Center that outlines a collaborative approach to reducing violence.
December 2011: One of the first multiagency suppression actions against a single gang takes place in one day. Law enforcement agencies serve narcotics warrants, search jail cells for contraband and send code enforcement staff to scrutinize houses where members sold drugs. It’s based on the Boston Ceasefire model.
Dec. 24, 2011: Five minors and four adults are wounded during a shooting in downtown Chattanooga.
January 2012: The gang task force receives funding, and Patterson moves from the District Attorney’s Office to the city mayor’s office. The task force gets a full budget and staff.
September 2012: A 173-page report is released detailing the depths of Chattanooga’s gang problems. It’s compiled by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and the Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies.
April 2013: The gang task force is dissolved following the election of Andy Berke as mayor. Berke says he wants to roll out an initiative to fight gang violence based on the High Point model.
March 2014: Berke establishes the Violence Reduction Initiative, a program launched in consultation with criminologist David Kennedy. Gang members attend “call-ins” as a condition of their probation where police, courts and social services aim to convince them to stop shooting each other and get help or face the full force of state and federal law.
October 2014: Shootings and homicides stand at 25 compared to 19 at the same point in 2013, but the city says 61 gang members obtained jobs, 23 were in mentorships, seven were earning GEDs and 90 violent gang members have been jailed under the VRI.
October 2015: Eleven of the 12 permanent officers on the Street Crimes Response Team, the police spearhead of VRI, transfer out of the unit.
March 2016: Hamilton County District Attorney Neal Pinkston writes in an open letter: “The VRI is not working because the city isn’t implementing many of the basic components the initiative requires.” Pinkston also says he’s forming his own anti-gang task force and declines to appear before the Chattanooga City Council, prompting them to subpoena him.
December 2017: Chattanooga’s homicide total creeps up to 34, but the overall number of shootings in the city fell from 158 in 2016 to 147 in 2017, helped by a nearly 30% decline in shootings involving gang members.
January 2018: A scheduled call-in is pushed to March after the City Council declines to vote on adopting a two-year, $600,000 contract with Father to the Fatherless to provide support services for the initiative. The group says it will keep providing services on a volunteer basis.
October 2018: The city of Chattanooga hosts its 14th call-in since the Violence Reduction Initiative started in March 2014. As of the Oct. 4 call-in, 281 individuals have attended the meetings since the initiative’s inception, according to Chattanooga police. In the week leading up to the call-in, Chattanooga saw a violent week with two homicides and four shootings, bringing the number of homicides to 17 and the number of shootings to 62 in 2018.
April 2021: As he prepares to leave office, Berke tells the Times Free Press that the VRI led to a drop in the city’s gang violence under his tenure. With the exception of 2018, which saw an unusually low number of shootings, gun violence in general held steady in Chattanooga during that time, but gang member-involved shootings in the city fell by 67% from a peak in 2016.
September 2021: A shooting on Grove Street on Sept. 25 results in the deaths of 37-year-old Labrecia Dews and 21-year-old Keniqua Hughes. Several other people are injured. That same day, a shooting on Campbell Street claims the life of 21-year-old Jailen Wofford. The shootings would go on to energize a renewed call from community activists, clergy and others for the city to address gun violence.
January 2022: A review of 2021 crime statistics shows that while the number of criminal homicides in Chattanooga largely stayed the same over the past three years, going from 33 in 2019 to 34 in 2020 and 34 again in 2021, non-fatal shootings in the city grew by 57%.
May 2022: A May 28 shooting in the heart of Chattanooga on a busy Saturday night leaves six teenagers wounded. Mayor Tim Kelly and Police Chief Celeste Murphy call for the public’s help in tracking down the shooters and ask for parents’ help in keeping guns out of the hands of children. Two juveniles have been arrested.
June 2022: Three people are killed and 14 are wounded in an early-morning shooting incident June 5 on McCallie Avenue. In addition to those injured in the shooting, one person is killed and others are injured by vehicles as they drive away from the scene. One man has been arrested on a gun possession charge.