The Chattanooga Gang Task Force told the Hamilton County Commission today that the city’s gang problem has begun migrating into the more suburban areas of the county.
The group spent about 30 minutes presenting the commission with findings from a six-month gang study conducted by the Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Ochs Center President Ken Chilton said that, while the majority of gang activity takes place within Chattanooga’s urban core, there are growing problems throughout the county because of residents’ displacement from the closing of public housing complexes closures and the growth of suburban poverty, an issue he called a national trend.
County schools are also hotbeds of gang activity, the group stressed.
For more information, read Friday’s Times Free Press.