Local leaders searching for crime solutions say that, after months of meetings, both the attitudes and the will of residents are changing.
Focusing on neighborhood safety and crime, a hodgepodge of impromptu and planned meetings has cropped up, beginning in March after two homicides at the Kanku’s gas station on Wilcox Boulevard and continuing into June when five people were shot at Coolidge Park.
Residents have gathered at neighborhood watch meetings, police community information sessions, a preplanned gangs summit at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and a recent series of panels held by Chattanooga Stand after results of a 26,000 respondent survey identified crime as residents’ No. 1 concern. Several participants echoed comments from Chattanooga City Councilman Peter Murphy: “We can do better than we are now.”
But moving from the meeting stage to the doing stage is sometimes difficult, leaders said.
“For one, there’s a meeting for the sake of meetings — meet to vent,” said Josh McManus, Stand co-founder. “Then there’s analysis paralysis — study something until you can’t study it anymore.”
Mr. McManus’ group had its third meeting on safety Wednesday and is bringing together groups either currently working or beginning projects on crime. In the meeting, the groups presented their goals and asked for volunteers and support.
“At this point, if we do another informational meeting, I think we’d lose progress,” Mr. McManus said.
Most interviewed agreed that there are residents who want to get involved and that the meetings can help connect people to groups and projects.
“They’re inclined to help. They just don’t know how or where,” Mr. McManus said.
Crime strategies discussed recently in Chattanooga have focused on two main areas — fighting crime through arrest and prosecution and preventing crime through increasing opportunities for at-risk youth.
There isn’t a central, well-recognized clearinghouse for area programs that target helping youth. Setting up a one-stop shop for such programs is a goal of Stand, Mr. McManus said.
A lot of talk on safety and crime begins at the neighborhood level with meetings between communities and police. One such outspoken group has been the North Brainerd Community Council.
Chairman Robert Schreane said that, since the group restarted monthly meetings this spring following the Kanku’s shootings, it’s had success bringing government leaders into discussions.
He believes that focus helped influence the City Council to restore normal operating hours of city recreation centers — the hours were cut due to budget concerns. Such centers house what are considered vital youth sports and education programs, both after school and during summer.
“Cutting those places would put us at even more risk of crime being committed by youth,” Mr. Schreane said.
If you go* What: Next Stand meeting* When: 1-5 p.m. July 16; noon-4 p.m. July 17* Where: Chauncey Good Auditorium at Tennessee Temple University, 1815 Union Ave.
Mr. Murphy said he’s seen a “change in political will across the community.”
In previous years, leaders might have thrown up their hands at the cumbersome problem of crime, but he said he doesn’t see that attitude in recent meetings.
“The fact that we’re having the discussions is enormous,” he said.
Much of the focus, he said, should remain on social services, courts, prosecution and police work.
By identifying how best to use local jail space and knowing what crimes are most dangerous and in need of prosecution, the community can clear out the short-term problems of dealing with repeat offenders and career criminals, he said.
Changing attitudes among state leaders have strengthened penalties for crimes such as armed robbery while reducing prison time on less-violent crimes and adding support services for former inmates to reduce recidivism.
Those steps help support work being done locally, Mr. Murphy said.