By the numbers
ALL NONFATAL SHOOTINGS YTD2015: 982014: 852013: 94GANG-RELATED NONFATAL SHOOTINGS YTD2015: 552014: 522013: 61GANG-RELATED SHOOTING HOMICIDES YTD2015: 102014: 122013: 11Source: Chattanooga Police Department
Fletcher’s email
Below is the full text of Chattanooga police Chief Fred Fletcher’s Saturday email.By now you have undoubtedly heard the Street Crimes Response Team is in a transition phase. A portion of this process will include a comprehensive review to evaluate organization, practices, deployment and other factors that promote this team’s support of our organizational mission and goals. It is our plan to develop a structure and a strategy to have the most impact on gang violence in Chattanooga.We expect to spend the next 30-60 days examining this facet of our efforts relative to our other recent organizational changes. As you may recall, a few of those more significant changes include reorganization of Investigations, development of Crime Analysis Unit, creation of Intelligence Unit, creation of Focused Deterrence Coordinator, and restructuring of Major Crimes. Considering the need to be deliberate about the reorganization of our Gang Investigation and Street Crimes Response functions, we are temporarily suspending the current posting and selection process for the openings in Street Crimes. The process of filling vacancies in this assignment will resume after supervision is completely in place, has reviewed mission, goals and operations and recommended a strategic plan. We expect that to happen early in the new year.This is going to be an exciting opportunity to make a difference in our department and our community. If you have interest in the anticipated vacancies, we encourage you to seek out leadership (which currently includes Sgt. Danny Jones, Lt. Tammy Cook, Captain Nathan Vaughn and Assistant Chief Tracy Arnold) to learn about the opportunity. Sgts. Josh May (Focused Deterrence Coordinator) and Steve Campbell work in direct support of this function and are also great resources for insight.In the meantime, continue your great and selfless work that has been having a positive impact on violent crime within your current assignments. Thanks to the work of the men and women of our department in all assignments, violent crime is down over 5 percent so far this year. I am proud of the work you do and I respect the sacrifices you make each and every day.Fred FletcherChief of Police
Chattanooga Police Department Chief Fred Fletcher will not immediately replace the 11 members of the Street Crimes team who abruptly asked to leave the unit earlier this month.
All but one of the permanent members of the Street Crimes team requested to transfer out of the unit during the first two weeks in October – a unified walkout.
Police had planned to transfer the 10 officers and one sergeant out and bring in a new team by the end of October, but Fletcher said that process will be delayed by 30 to 60 days so that police can review the unit’s practices, deployment and organization.
“Considering the need to be deliberate about the reorganization of our Gang Investigation and Street Crimes Response functions, we are temporarily suspending the current posting and selection process for the openings in Street Crimes,” Fletcher wrote in an email he sent to all officers early Saturday morning.
He wrote that the hiring process will likely start in early 2016. Until then, officers who asked to transfer will stay in the unit and continue to perform their regular duties, Fletcher said Monday. He said he has no intention of getting rid of Street Crimes all together.
“There will always be a Street Crimes team,” Fletcher said. “A team like Street Crimes is like the cavalry. They can attack problems that officers who are tethered to a radio can’t do.”
Initially created as the “Crime Suppression Unit” in 2007, the Street Crimes team’s central purpose was to attack crime trends – clearing unserved warrants, picking up offenders on drug charges and traffic offenses and generally focusing on enforcement.
That purpose has shifted since Fletcher took office. He reorganized the unit, changed its name and has pushed neighborhood policing – a focus on solving problems rather than making arrests.
“We’ve done tons of reorganization,” Fletcher said. “There are some people who did not like that reorganization because they couldn’t do things the way they’ve always done it.”
Police supervisors will consider making changes like capping how many years an officer can serve in Street Crimes or shifting how the unit is set up, he said, but that the unit’s core mission will remain the same.
“The purpose is clear – to implement intelligence-led policing, focused deterrence, and community policing and to do it in a way that focuses on the most important crimes, which right now are gang and gun violence and other violent crime,” he said. “The mission remains the same. The way they do it? I’m always changing that.”
After Fletcher took office, the street crimes team was tasked with executing some of the key parts of the Violence Reduction Initiative, which was launched by Mayor Andy Berke in March 2014 with the goal of reducing gang-related gun violence in the city.
The Street Crimes team organized the VRI’s “call-ins” and took the lead on enforcement actions – two critical pieces of the initiative. The call-ins are meetings between police and gang members where police tell gang members they can either stop shooting and get help or continue to shoot and watch police crack down on them and their gangs. Enforcement actions are the crackdowns that occur if gang members continue to shoot.
The VRI is a departmentwide initiative and every officer plays a role in its deployment, not just the Street Crimes team, Chief of Staff David Roddy said. He said the initiative will continue despite the Street Crimes team’s exodus.
So far this year, there have been 55 gang-related, nonfatal shootings. That’s higher than 2014, when there had been 52 gang-related shootings at this point in the year, but lower than 2013, when there were 61.
Gang-related gun homicides are down slightly so far this year – there have been 10 so far this year, there were 12 at this point in 2014, and 11 at this point in 2013.
Contact staff writer Shelly Bradbury at 423-757-6525 or sbradbury@timesfreepress.com with tips or story ideas.