Eleven of the 12 Street Crime team members quit unit

Chattanooga Police Department Street Crimes Response Team Investigators Cornelius Gaines, left, and Marc Saint Louis talk with Jerry Moore, seen in handcuffs after being arrested for allegedly selling crack cocaine to an undercover officer on Doris Street in this April 1, 2015, file photo. Chattanooga Police Department Street Crimes Response Team Investigators Cornelius Gaines, left, and Marc Saint Louis talk with Jerry Moore, seen in handcuffs after being arrested for allegedly selling crack cocaine to an undercover officer on Doris Street in this April 1, 2015, file photo.

By Shelly Bradbury October 17, 2015 4 min read

Officers who requested transfers:

‘ John Patterson ‘ Randall Bissell ‘ Rodney Proffit ‘ Investigator Kenneth Blue ‘ Kelly Downs ‘ Derek Roncin ‘ Christopher Sims ‘ Investigator Cornelius Gaines ‘ Marc Saint-Louis ‘ Gary Aaron Williams ‘ Sgt. Rusty Morrison

Eleven of the 12 permanent members of the Chattanooga Police Department’s Street Crimes Response Team requested transfers out of the unit during a 10-day span that ended Wednesday, records show.

On the official paperwork, the officers list personal reasons, schedules and career aspirations as their reasons for transfer, but sources say the mass exodus is actually the result of a toxic environment between the team and Chief Fred Fletcher’s administration – a unified protest against the way the unit was operating.

The team is a key part of the Violence Reduction Initiative and handles many of the day-to-day logistics of the strategy. Street Crimes documents gang members and sets up the initiative’s signature “call-ins,” meetings between police and gang members, Chief of Staff David Roddy said.

In the past year, the mission and purpose of Street Crimes has gone through several iteration, sources say, and that shift was part of what prompted the officers to leave.