Hamilton County District Attorney General Neal Pinkston speaks, on March 23, 2016, about being subpoenaed by the Chattanooga City Council.After trading political jabs for a week, the Chattanooga City Council voted today to withdraw its subpoena against Hamilton County District Attorney Neal Pinkston, and the group canceled its 3 p.m. public safety committee meeting.
The Council had previously voted to subpoena Pinkston to try to force him to answer questions about the city's Violence Reduction Initiative, an anti-gang violence strategy that has cost the city more than $1 million but which has produced few quantitative results.
Pinkston fired back last week and said he would ignore the subpoena because the city council couldn't enforce it, and underlined his own plan to start a separate gang-violence initiative after providing a list of reasons why the current Violence Reduction Initiative isn't working.
He cited, for example, the abrupt resignation of 11 of the 12 members of the Chattanooga Police Department's VRI team, the lack of felony arrests and what he termed a lack of cooperation with his office.
Others in the city suggested that Pinkston's office has not vigorously pursued the harshest punishments against VRI offenders who are brought in on misdemeanor charges, and Pinkston himself has expressed discomfort with treating some defendants differently than others.
A Times Free Press investigation in February revealed big holes in the anti-violence initiative, with only seven defendants receiving the maximum punishment allowed under state law out of 263 gang arrests. Most were sentenced to probation, not jail time.
The council moved to withdraw the subpoena during an agenda session today. Councilman Chip Henderson made the motion to withdraw.
Councilman Chris Anderson, who initiated the subpoena last week, said he felt like he'd achieved his goal of opening dialogue between Pinkston and the council.
Councilman Moses Freeman said the VRI was a "sexy project" that was being politicized, warning that the council may be too close the the problem.