PDF: The full Ochs Center 2010 report TOTAL INCIDENTS PER YEARRed BankAggravated assault2009: 612007: 502005: 55Burglary2009: 1172007: 1442005: 115Destruction/Vandalism 2009: 1482007: 1602005: 85Shoplifting2009: 712007: 322005: 36East RidgeAggravated assault2009: 1582007: 1502005: 123Burglary2009: 2952007: 3032005: 318Destruction/Vandalism 2009: 2812007: 2592005: 278Shoplifting2009: 1512007: 1162005: 142Source: The State of Chattanooga Region Report 2010: Public Safety
Although Red Bank and East Ridge accounted for only 10 percent of Hamilton County’s violent crime in 2009, a study shows slight increases for both in violent and property crimes in those towns over the last five years.
But specific crime trends in both cities differed in The State of Chattanooga Region Report 2010: Public Safety, compiled by the Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies. The center used data from state and federal crime statistics for the Chattanooga Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Between 2005 and 2009, Red Bank’s incident rate for what the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation calls “Type A” crimes – murder, robbery, burglary, aggravated assault and motor vehicle theft – increased 16.7 percent. In the same time, those crimes decreased 1.4 percent in East Ridge.
“Almost every week, we’ll see different crimes solved by an alert neighbor seeing something that doesn’t look right,” said East Ridge’s interim city manager, Eddie Phillips. “And our crime suppression units don’t look like police cars until their lights come on. We’ve got marked cars as a deterrent and unmarked [cars] to catch them in the act.”