FLETCHER’S TIMELINE
April 2014:
Fred Fletcher is chosen from 77 candidates at $142,500 a year.
May 13, 2014: He is confirmed in a city council vote.
June 12, 2014: Fletcher is sworn in.
June 25, 2014: He starts working full time, with a three-year contract and optional threeyear renewal.
June 28, 2014:
Three homicides took place on the first three days of Fletcher’s tenure, along with six nonfatal shootings that week. At that point, shootings were at the same rate as in 2013.
July 2014:
Fletcher names 20-year department veteran David Roddy, along with Capt. Danna Vaughn, Capt. Tracy Arnold and Capt. Eric Tucker as assistant chiefs.
August 2014:
First “hot spot patrol” deployed in East Lake to get officers out of cars and onto bikes, making personal contacts in high-crime neighborhoods. Fletcher sets up partnerships with 70 community members, such as pastors and civic leaders, to combat “snitches get stitches” ethos, and starts sending officers and going himself to community events like picnics at the Chattanooga Housing Authority. He begins reaching out to an alienated Hispanic community to build trust and support.
November 2014:
Seven months into the Violence Reduction Initiative, homicides are higher than for the same period in 2013, but police say gang-related shootings have fallen, 90 people have been arrested and 61 have found jobs through VRI.
December 2014:
First group of police cadets completes “Community Immersion Project” training that embeds them in black, LGBT or Hispanic culture they otherwise wouldn’t know. Fletcher says police need to understand the communities they serve.
December 2014: Longtime Chattanooga Lt. Todd Royval, Fletcher’s “point man” on the VRI, asks to step down as head of the Crime Suppression Unit.
December 2014:
Police say shootings fell from 123 in 2013 to 111 in 2014, but figures showed homicides were up from 19 to 27. The New Year of 2015 came in with three shootings and two deaths.
March 2015:
Fletcher honored as Public Official of the Year by Southeast Tennessee Branch of the National Social Workers Association.
March 2015:
City renews VRI contract for $200,000 through end of the year. Fletcher says the program has helped police audit violence in the city and developed a tracking mechanism to follow gang violence.
April 2015: Committee appointed by Fletcher proposes revised promotions process to lessen the “good ol’ boy” network’s influence on promotions.
June 2015:
At first anniversary on job, public officials and police credit Fletcher for “getting things done” in new community initiatives plus internal reforms including crackdowns on police misconduct, along with implementing new crime analysis and special victims’ units. July 16, 2105: Chattanooga officers first on scene of Muhammad Abdulazeez’s terror attack at Chattanooga Navy/ Marine Reserve center; one officer wounded and police officers shoot and kill Abdulazeez.
September 2015: Homicide count (what Fletcher calls “applesto-apples murders” and not counting July terror attack that took five lives) is at 12, compared to 21 for same period in 2014. Gang-related shootings were at 53 for the year to date, compared with 52 in prior year.
September 2015:
The police department gets a $600,000 grant to hire social workers who will go on police calls to support crime victims.
September 2015:
The City Council votes to renew the VRI contract. Fletcher said overall crime is down by 19 percent over the prior year, and that in program’s first 18 months, police hosted seven “callins” attended by 134 gang members; conducted eight “enforcement actions” and arrested 213.
October 2015:
Eleven of the 12 members of the Street Crimes Response Team, formerly the Crime Suppression Unit, ask for transfers within a 10-day span. Some cite a toxic environment between the team and Fletcher’s administration, while others saw it as a protest against the switch from crime suppression to community policing.
February 2016:
Fletcher defends the VRI when Chattanooga Councilman Yusuf Hakeem declares it a failure after gang-related shootings and homicides fail to decline over three years of the program.
March 2016:
Feud among VRI coalition becomes public, with District Attorney Neal Pinkston blaming the city for underperformance and Fletcher and Berke saying Pinkston has taken himself out of the initiative. Pinkston later announces he’ll form a separate anti-gang initiative.
May 2016:
Fletcher shelters Berke adviser Lacie Stone after she and her husband, Bobby Stone, fight over his belief she’s having an affair with Berke. Fletcher asks the TBI to investigate. Domestic violence charges against Bobby Stone later were dropped. Allegations of an affair and criticism of the VRI are issues in mayor’s race, though Berke is re-elected.
January 2017:
Figures show 32 homicides in 2016, up from 30 in 2015 and 27 in 2014. Shootings rose from 114 in 2014 to 119 in 2015 and 132 in 2016. However, Fletcher said the number of gang-related shootings fell from 67 percent of all shootings in 2015 to 58 percent in 2016.
April 7, 2017:
Fletcher announces his plans to retire at the end of his contract.