Chattanooga City Council discusses city budget decisions about law enforcement

Chattanooga Police Capt. Scott Fulgham reviews a new sound ordinance with the city council.
Chattanooga Police Capt. Scott Fulgham reviews a new sound ordinance with the city council.

The Chattanooga City Council is scheduled to tackle the portion of the budget pertaining to policing, including the addition of a new gun crime unit, at 9:30 a.m. today.

According to the proposed budget, 14 new authorized sworn positions at the Chattanooga Police Department would be required to staff the unit as well as rapid response teams.

As described now, the Firearm Violence Elimination Strategy would rely on a five person gun team and the response teams to follow up on dispatched calls about shots fired throughout the city.

They would focus on ballistic matches from evidence gathered at scenes and entered into a database called the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network in order to track gun crimes, identifying consistently used firearms and the offenders who use them.

The budget also includes $100,000 to begin a 3-phase replacement plan for gear for Chattanooga firefighters as well as a $2.3 million investment to adjust pay brackets for all sworn personnel, as outlined in a 2014 memorandum of understanding.

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