A Dodge Challenger reportedly used to transport heroin is now a teaching tool for students and a warning for drug dealers.
“Hamilton County is not a welcoming place for crime and criminals,” Sheriff Austin Garrett said in a news conference at East Hamilton Middle School on Thursday.
“If you choose to sell drugs in and around Hamilton County, we’re going to seize your assets that are derived from criminal activity,” he said.
Detectives with the office’s narcotics and special investigations unit seized the car from a drug dealer in 2023, Garrett said. The car has been repainted and modified to resemble other cruisers used by deputies, though its new paint job includes the acronym DARE, which stands for drug abuse resistance education.
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Deputies unveiled the reskinned car Thursday, surrounded by students in the school’s sixth grade DARE class and people who facilitated the car’s redesign. East Hamilton Middle is one of five schools in the county system to offer students DARE programming, which returned to the district in September 2022 after an absence of about 20 years. East Hamilton is also the county’s largest public middle school and piloted the return of DARE to the district.
The vehicle represents a commitment to helping children and eliminating use of illegal drugs from the community, Garrett said.
Area business owners and Chattanooga State Community College students and instructors are among those who repainted and modified the car. Garrett credited Miller Industries, Byrd’s Automotive, Federal Signal Corp., Matt’s Auto Glass and Volunteer Tint and Graphics and the sheriff’s office fleet personnel with the car’s redesign.
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It took about three months to transform the car, Garrett said.
The Dodge’s new paint job now also includes a note on the vehicle’s origins: “Seized From A Local Drug Dealer,” is written along the side of the car.
Its second life was funded through asset forfeiture, Garrett told the Chattanooga Times Free Press after the news conference.
Asset forfeiture has historically created debate. It’s a process that law enforcement agencies and other entities use to confiscate items — including money — reportedly used in crimes. Advocates say it deprives criminals of resources, while critics point to issues with civil liberties of defendants and property rights. Garrett stressed that no tax dollars were used in the car’s retrofit.
The investigation that led to the car’s seizure has so far meant police confiscation of 22 pounds of methamphetamine — valued at just under $800,000 — and three arrests. That investigation is ongoing, Garrett said. Matt Lea, public relations manager for the sheriff’s office, cited the current investigation when he declined, over email, to elaborate on the status of charges against the original owner or owners of the car.
The car’s presence should highlight East Hamilton’s DARE program and the work that county deputies do to curb drug crime, Garrett said.
It will be used as a regular patrol vehicle as well.
“This car is meant to be a conversation piece,” Garrett said. And students could use it as a learning tool. “It’s a mobile classroom.”
Garrett said that the car could be used as a way to teach students skills such as driving safely and engaging with law enforcement.
“Deputies do that every day in the school resource program — talk to kids about relationships and dialogue and conflict resolution,” he said.
Rodney Brown, a school resource deputy and DARE instructor assigned to the school, said in response to questions that the car will also be feature in DARE graduations and be used throughout the community.
The car is the sheriff’s office’s only dedicated DARE vehicle, but Garrett said that could change in the future.
“My intent is for all of my DARE instructors to have a DARE vehicle in the near future,” he said. “I’d prefer that people stop selling dope. That’s probably not gonna happen, so we’re gonna continue seizing assets and putting people in jail.”
Contact Mariah Franklin at mfranklin@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.