Boyd Patterson, coordinator of the City of Chattanooga Gang Task ForceChattanooga’s gang task force is working on more than 40 projects to suppress gang violence, using as laboratories everything from a doctor’s office to a nature camp and tools ranging from books to jobs.
Less than a month after moving into his new office, gang task force coordinator Boyd Patterson is traveling across the region to make sure the projects are making progress.
He was in Apison on Wednesday to evaluate repair work needed to prepare a Boys and Girls Club campsite to host a nature camp for inner-city youth. And he participated in a legislative committee meeting Thursday in Nashville about criminal and civil gang laws that may be passed within three years.
“The message that everyone needs to understand is that Chattanooga has gang enforcement. We are seriously committed to enhancing suppression,” Patterson said. “But we are just as serious about outreach.”
About 25 percent of the task force’s plan includes suppression strategies such as enforcing longer prison sentences for gang members and seeking a federal grant to hire a full-time criminal analyst. The other 75 percent of the task force’s effort focuses on intervention and outreach.