Chattanooga goes more than 60 days without a homicide

Oct. 28--Despite a string of uncommonly violent months earlier in 2017, Chattanooga has now gone more than 60 days without a homicide.

It's impossible to predict how much longer the stretch will continue, but such a respite has been rare in recent years -- since 2013, Chattanooga has gone through only eight periods of 30 or more days without a homicide.

Authorities with the Chattanooga Police Department hope the streak is a sign that the tide of violence is beginning to recede a little, and they attributed it to a number of initiatives that are paying dividends.

"I don't think there's a singular cause. I think it's a combination of a ton of stuff," said Sgt. Josh May, head of the police department's anti-gang violence efforts.

"The X factor that I can't talk enough about is we've seen a lot of our young, high school and juvenile violence dropping," he said. "We're just not seeing the high school stuff we used to see."

Homicides seen earlier in the year have ranged from drug ripoffs to domestic disorders and everything in between, but May said a sizable portion of Chattanooga's gun violence has historically revolved around disputes between teenagers and young adults. He said shootings typically erupted after conflicts at parties and the results spilled over onto the internet.

"What we saw with the explosion of social media, you started seeing more and more kids talking about it. Boasting about it," he said.

The department began focusing on gatherings that had the potential to turn violent and redoubled its efforts monitoring social media, but May said some of the biggest changes have been made by Troy Rogers, the city's public safety coordinator, and the network of mentors he has been working to connect with Chattanooga's schools.

By focusing on children who have grown up in poverty, in close proximity to violence, the partnership of community members and organizations that coordinate with Rogers are trying to offer them an alternative to gang membership so they never have to go on May's radar.

"No kids are born bad, and we have to figure out why they are making some of the decisions to join gangs," Rogers said. "We, the community, have to stand in the gap and be consistent with our young people. We are severing the pipelines of the gangs and replacing it with exposure and love."

That work was on display Thursday morning at Orchard Knob Middle School, where Rogers and May sat on a panel of community leaders in front of the school's boys and encouraged them to think deeply about their futures.

"The grind is real but the grind is special when we see kids start to go to college, military or pursue a trade. See young men marry the mother of their children and work two jobs to provide," he said.

"True change takes time and we need to always be critiquing what we are doing to get better and more efficient. I tell all my kids never let anyone outwork you, that is something you can control."

May said that effort is paying off because it intercepts kids facing crises and helps break down the road to gang participation by offering alternative role models.

"Psychologically, these kids are going through adverse childhood experiences, and there's no one there for them to talk to or reach out to," he said. "The only way to really shut down gang activity is to not have any gang members. If you can shut down their recruiting, everyone wins."

Overall, the city has seen 29 homicides this year, the last of which was Isaac Queen, 30, who was gunned down in front of the Hampton Inn on Shallowford Road on Aug. 28. At this point in 2016, there had been 31 homicides in Chattanooga.

Fifteen of this year's homicides have been gang motivated, down from 19 last year, according to police. The total number of shooting incidents in 2017 is also down from years prior, especially those involving gang members -- just 36 of the 98 shootings this year have been gang-related, compared to 66 at this point last year.

May said technological investments have also helped drive down violent crime and he expects things like the real-time intelligence center and firearm tracking through the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network will continue to have an impact.

The intelligence center, a police nerve center where employees analyze crime trends and have access to live footage from cameras scattered throughout the city, has already led to the prosecution of some violent offenders. Lebron Brown, 28, was arrested in June after allegedly being caught on one of those cameras shooting into a white van, critically injuring an 8-year-old boy.

Still to come is the department's gun unit, which will be comprised of a five-person gun team and nine officers organized into rapid response teams tasked with following up on dispatched calls about shots fired throughout the city. Included in the department's portion of next year's city budget was $1.7 million for the new positions.

The gun unit will also focus on ballistic matches from evidence gathered at shooting scenes to track gun crimes, identifying consistently used firearms and the offenders who use them. In his presentation to the City Council during budget proceedings, May showed a diagram linking 29 firearms that had been linked to 20 shooting incidents through ballistics analysis.

On Friday, Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke applauded the work being done to curb violence while acknowledging there is still room to improve.

"We know people are talking to police because they are tired of violent crime in their neighborhood -- their input combined with innovative tech is helping our officers increase safety in Chattanooga," he wrote in an emailed statement.

"With the right tools and alternatives for youth, we are making strides. However, any violence is too much violence, and there is more work to do to help citizens live a safe life in our community."

Contact staff writer Emmett Gienapp at egienapp@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6731. Follow him on Twitter @emmettgienapp.

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