Cooper: Is VRI the tool or a tool?

Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher discusses a new, multi-layered strategy to fight gun violence last week.
Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher discusses a new, multi-layered strategy to fight gun violence last week.

Where murders and violent crime are concerned, people can be impatient.

So when Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke's 3-year-old Violence Reduction Initiative (VRI) doesn't appear to be achieving the expected results, voters with a municipal election coming up in March begin looking around and elected officials start modifying their messages.

The upshot is the VRI, initially offered as a way for - according to then-public safety coordinator Paul Smith - "young black men to stop shooting and killing young black men," has been relegated to the cliched "another tool in the toolbox" for local law enforcement. And at least one elected official says the strategy may be on the way out.

Berke might feel differently, but his signature initiative may have been oversold as the answer to violent crime. He never used the word "answer," but the rollout seemed to at least assure it would reduce violent crime over time. How much time was never precisely identified.

Three years into VRI's implementation, shootings in 2016 were the highest they've been since the mayor took office. Homicides in 2016 were the most since 1997.

Last week, Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher announced his force will double the number of people who work on gang and gun violence from 20 to 40. The department also will turn its current street crimes unit into a dedicated gang unit and hire 14 new police officers.

The overall strategy, according to Sgt. Josh May, will focus on enforcement, community involvement and aggressive prosecution of federal gun laws.

Fletcher said, though, the new strategy would not replace the VRI. That initiative's focus on gang members, call-ins and conduct enforcement actions will continue. And the city - which already has spent more than $1 million on the VRI - is still paying $22,000 to the National Network For Safe Communities, the organization that pioneered the approach behind it.

The new hires, the chief said, would allow the department to implement the new strategy while retaining the VRI because the particular program is "what the community demanded."

In truth, what the community demanded was a reduction in shootings and murders. The VRI was Berke's call.

However, City Councilman Yusuf Hakeem told the Times Free Press editorial board in an interview last week that he believes VRI will be "gradually removed from the scene."

"There was less emphasis on it in the last budget," he said. "We'll be reappropriating some of the dollars. It may disappear with the next budget."

Councilman Chris Anderson says Berke "made the mistake of overpromising" VRI results but that regardless of what happens to the specific program named the VRI, its emphases on community policing and focused deterrence will continue.

Similarly, Councilman Jerry Mitchell acknowledged the program "hasn't been as successful as we would like, but he said "the right police chief," the department's real-time intelligence center and "the carrot (social services) side" of the strategy are among its positive results.

City Council Chairman Moses Freeman, on the other hand, said "not enough time" has been given for the VRI to "germinate."

The shooting and homicide numbers notwithstanding, he said, the strategy has seen "success one on one" with some individuals leaving gangs.

Councilman Chip Henderson played down the importance of seeing the VRI as a be-all, end-all solution.

"[The problem] didn't get here overnight," he said in an interview with the editorial board. "We're admitting [the solution] is going to take some time regardless of what plan we use. We'll never police our way out of it. There is no silver bullet."

City Council challengers who have met with the Times Free Press almost unanimously said the VRI isn't working, needs to be replaced or needs to have less funding devoted to it. District 2 challenger and ex-Navy captain Mickey McCamish said an expensive program that didn't produce the proper results wouldn't be tolerated elsewhere.

"They would have relieved me of command of my ship [for such an expenditure]," he said.

With the election of a mayor and nine City Council members just over six weeks away, it's hardly shocking for those in office to be downplaying the importance of the VRI and for challengers to claim it hasn't worked.

After the election and before presentation of the fiscal 2018 budget, we'll know if Hakeem was right when he suggested the program is on its way out.

In the meantime, we think Berke and Fletcher are wise to use funds both on new police hires - which still must be approved by City Council - and on a variety of technological tools from cameras to databases that can be critical in identifying suspects, tracing evidence and seizing guns.

And we strongly agree with Berke, many council members and many of their election challengers that work on the front end - education and workforce training, primarily - could prevent much of the violent crime and heartbreak on the back end.

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