In the first few hours of 2015, two people were shot to death and another was wounded - a violent start to what would be a violent year, when 30 people were killed in the city.
This year, Chattanooga police are taking extra measures to prevent violence today and on New Year's Day.
The police department's crime analysts mapped all of the city's New Year's Eve "shots fired" calls for the last three years to pinpoint hot spots where gunfire - even celebratory gunfire - is common during the holiday.
Then officers went door to door in those neighborhoods recently to warn residents such gunfire is illegal, and officers will be on the lookout for offenders tonight, police Chief Fred Fletcher said.
"We are going to have extra patrols, and we'll be looking to make arrests," Fletcher said.
Last year, 24-year-old Deoaunte Dean was shot and killed inside his home around 12:20 a.m. on New Year's Day, and Juan Boyd, 18, was shot to death while sitting in a vehicle in the parking lot of a Waffle House on Brainerd Road around 3 a.m.
Neither killing was random, police said. Fletcher hopes putting extra officers on the street in high-crime areas tonight and Friday will deter some criminals who are looking to settle a score or target a particular individual. As of Dec. 23, there were 118 shootings in Chattanooga, according to Times Free Press records.
"It is not a silver bullet," Fletcher said, "but the only way we can try to interdict crime is to use intelligence and data and experience to put police officers near the places and people where there is violence."
Police officers also will be conducting traffic enforcement today, Fletcher said. In 2014, which is the latest data year available from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Hamilton County authorities arrested seven people and charged them with driving under the influence on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
Fletcher expects some officers to drive through neighborhoods with their blue lights flashing to be especially visible.
The police department frequently boosts its manpower and focus around holidays or "high-profile" times of year. When high school students headed back to school in August, the city saw eight people shot within five days - a spike in violence that police department personnel anticipated but thought would come a few days later.
Officers used many of the same tactics - extra patrols, visible officers, data - to curb the violence then that they plan to use today.
Contact staff writer Shelly Bradbury at 423-757-6525 or sbradbury@timesfreepress.com with tips or story ideas.