Chattanooga: Local crime concentrated in inner city, report shows

If crime studies eliminated data from inner-city Chattanooga, statistics across Hamilton County would look dramatically different, according to a report released Tuesday by the Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies.

Crime in the county disproportionately is concentrated in five subregions in Chattanooga — South Chattanooga, downtown, Bushtown/Highland Park, Amnicola/East Chattanooga and Ridgedale/Oak Grove/Clifton Hills.

“If you only looked at the parts of Hamilton County where 85 percent of the population lives and didn’t look at those five areas, you’d have a very different picture,” said David Eichenthal, president and CEO of the Ochs Center and co-author of the report.

Those five subregions make up slightly more than 14 percent of the county’s population but account for nearly 50 percent of robbery complaints and more than 45 percent of drug and narcotics violations, the report shows.

“If you look at those same five subregions across a number of other indicators that are not directly related to law enforcement and crime, you see a series of issues that make you realize these areas don’t just have a crime problem, they have a series of problems,” Mr. Eichenthal said. “These five subregions also have the five highest poverty rates among subregions in Hamilton County.”

The five areas also rank in the top five in lowest school attendance and in the top six in births to single mothers, Mr. Eichenthal said.

Though he had not yet seen the report, Chattanooga police Chief Freeman Cooper said the findings were surprising, since the city has been aggressive in targeting all five neighborhoods. He said their aggressive policing practices have paid dividends.

“We have currently, and have had in the past, efforts underway in all of these neighborhoods to work with neighborhood groups and neighborhood associations to reduce crime there,” Chief Cooper said.

“I think we do have a handle on (crime in those neighborhoods) and have had for some time. Two of those neighborhoods (East Chattanooga/Eastlake and Highland Park) did lead the city -- not the county -- in calls for service, but that is no longer true, and we’ve noticed that for some time now.”

Richard Blevins, who has lived in Clifton Hills for nine years, said he’s seen more police over the last few years.

“They are a lot more visible. When we first moved here, you rarely saw police,” said Mr. Blevins, who is secretary of the Clifton Hills Neighborhood Association. “But we still see a lot of prostitution and you see a lot of drugs sales. They have done some busts here recently, but I think the problem is just sort of overwhelming.”

The goal of the report, the fourth in a series of seven in the State of Chattanooga Region Report, is to provide policy makers, community leaders and law enforcement officials with the data they need to create crime reduction solutions, Mr. Eichenthal said.

“The degree to look at these issues in the context of place and the context of issues around poverty I think helps ... policy makers make better decisions and helps the public to have a better understanding of some issues we confront as a community,” he said.

Another trend highlighted by the newest report is the regionalization of crime. As populations in areas outside the city grow, crime follows, according to the report.

In growing Catoosa County, Ga., for example, from 2003 to 2007 the number of violent crimes doubled from 40 to 80, and property crimes increased more than 7 percent, according to the report.

“Part of it may be because some of the same issues and factors that people associate with crime when it comes to issues around poverty — this exists not just inside inner cities but in surrounding metro areas, as well,” Mr. Eichenthal said.

The most surprising part of the study for co-author Dr. Gale Iles, an assistant criminal justice professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, was the spreading of crime throughout the county.

“Social ills (are) being expanded outside the city of Chattanooga,” she said.

The report also looked at how safe county residents feel and the demographics of perpetrators and victims.