Violence Reduction Initiative call-in scrapped over contract kerfuffle

Chattanooga Police Department Sgt. Josh May gives a "Mindset of a Gang Member" presentation Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2017, at the Public Service Center in Chattanooga, Tenn. May explained the Violence Reduction Initiative, Focused Deterrence and the challenges of addressing gang-related crime in Chattanooga.
Chattanooga Police Department Sgt. Josh May gives a "Mindset of a Gang Member" presentation Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2017, at the Public Service Center in Chattanooga, Tenn. May explained the Violence Reduction Initiative, Focused Deterrence and the challenges of addressing gang-related crime in Chattanooga.

The ripples from the Chattanooga City Council's refusal to vote on Mayor Andy Berke's chosen Violence Reduction Initiative social services provider now include the cancellation of a planned call-in set for next week.

Troy Rogers, public safety coordinator, and Kerry Hayes, deputy chief of staff, said the call-in couldn't take place because the council did not vote Tuesday to adopt the two-year, $600,000 contract with Father to the Fatherless.

The local nonprofit organization now provides social services for the initiative. The city's plan was to take Berke's signature anti-gang effort in a new direction: Trying to keep teens out of trouble rather than rehabilitate adults after they've ruined their lives with drugs, crime and violence.

Violence Reduction Initiative timeline

March 2014: Violence Reduction Initiative goes into effect, a combination of tough policing, community engagement and direct contact with violent offenders, to reduce crime.June 2014: One of the social service providers, A Better Tomorrow, is exiled from program after its director, Richard Bennett, is arrested on charges that later are dropped. Hope for the Inner City is the new provider.October 2014: Shootings and homicides were at 25, compared with 19 at the same point in 2013. But city says 61 gang members had gotten jobs, 23 were in mentorships, seven were earning GEDs and 90 violent gang members had been jailed under the VRI.December 2014: The Chattanooga Police Department’s point man on VRI, Lt. Todd Royval, asks to be reassigned away from the program.January 2015: Internal documents from Hope for the Inner City don’t substantiate claimed gains in jobs and education.March 2015: Chattanooga renews a $200,000 contract with National Network of Safer Communities, which helped with research and organization of VRI.September 2015: Hope for the Inner City gets $290,000 contract renewal. At this point there have been seven call-ins. To date for the year there were 59 gang-related shootings, compared with 60 in 2014 and 67 in 2013.October 2015: Eleven of the 12 permanent officers on the Street Crimes Response Team, the police spearhead of VRI, transfer out of the unit.November 2015: Hamilton County District Attorney Neal Pinkston states he supports the VRI, but claims it crosses an ethical line by asking him to target particular defendants.February 2016: The Times Free Press reports the vast majority of VRI offenders have avoided long sentences and significant jail time. Of 263 gang members arrested between March 2014 and February 2016, only seven received the maximum punishment and most were sentenced to probation, not jail time.March 2016: Public officials and Pinkston trade shots over the VRI. Pinkston writes in an open letter that “The VRI is not working because the city isn’t implementing many of the basic components the initiative requires.”April 2016: A violent gang war erupts, claiming multiple lives and sending many to the hospital with gunshot wounds.September 2016: The Times Free Press reports that nine women, more than any other year since at least 2011, have been killed in 2016 and half of those victims were associated with gang violence.December 2016: The homicide rate hits 32, a new high in recent local history. The city recorded 132 shootings in 2016, compared to 119 in 2015.April 2017: Police Chief Fred Fletcher announces he will retire at the end of his three-year contract. He says, “Our Department has made tremendous strides in the past three years. I know our brightest and most rewarding days still lie ahead.”September 2017: New Police Chief David Roddy says he wants to continue developing a police department that relies on technology, community relationships and focused deterrence to target individuals driving violent crime in the city.December 2017: Chattanooga’s homicide rate creeps up to 34, but shootings involving gang members drop to the rate seen in 2014.

Some council members complained Tuesday they were given too few details and too little time to consider before the contract vote. So they didn't.

But some didn't understand how not having a new contract would affect a call-in - where gang members are offered help with education, jobs and services if they want to get out of the life - scheduled under the current contract.

As it turns out, there is no current contract, Rogers and Hayes said Thursday afternoon. The most recent contract expired in November, they said, and Father to the Fatherless, or F2F, has been volunteering its services since then.

That was news to council Chairman Jerry Mitchell and members Carol Berz, Anthony Byrd and Russell Gilbert.

They said the administration never told them, even as it presented the new proposal and gave them only a week to learn about it before a scheduled vote.

"I had no idea it had run out in November," Mitchell said Thursday afternoon.

Added Gilbert, "To me as a businessman, before you let something expire, you want to get things set up so it won't expire."

The VRI has shown, at best, mixed results since it was implemented in March 2014. The city has pumped well over $1 million into the initiative, one of Berke's showcase projects, but the number of shootings involving gang members remains largely unchanged.

At the end of 2017, public officials cheered a drop in the total number of shootings from 158 in 2016 to 147 in 2017. Shootings involving gang members declined by almost 30 percent in 2017 from the year before, but the city still weathered 64 such incidents, one more than the tally for 2014. The shooting rate jumped by more than a dozen over the next two years.

Gilbert and Berz were the chief questioners last week when police Chief David Roddy and Rogers pitched the new approach and contract. The new approach would aim to intervene as soon as young teens showed signs of trouble.

Rogers said Thursday that F2F has been an organizing force for the network of community partners who have thrown their weight behind the initiative.

"They have been the main partner to take people in and disseminate them," he said. "It waters down everything we do and believe if we don't have those social services."

But at Tuesday's meeting, the council members said they had not received requested information, including reports measuring the program's effectiveness to date. Berz wanted to know who would be working on the teens' cases and what their qualifications are. Several said they wanted a much larger program involving many more segments of the community in helping at-risk teens.

Gilbert made the point again Thursday.

"This is a big problem. It's going to take not only this group or another group, it's going to take all of us together making a difference, parents, church, A Better Tomorrow [unsuccessful bidder for the contract], Father to the Fatherless, we've all got to be a team," he said.

Byrd, chairman of the council's public safety committee, said Thursday, "I didn't feel comfortable spending $600,000 of somebody else's money when I didn't have all the stats in front of me."

Asked about the lack of a vote and the delayed call-in, Roddy said via email: "There are two main components to the VRI model, Enforcement and Social Services. The Chattanooga Police Department's primary responsibility lies within the Enforcement end. Your CPD officers will continue to respond to calls for service and protect community members as we do each and every day."

Mitchell said balking at the vote was a message to the administration.

"What the council has asked for from social services is some type of information about rates of success, reports. We've asked quarterly for them to come to us. We've been told that has not been permitted to happen," Mitchell said.

"To me, there's two things going on here - it's a total lack of communication between the council and the administration. And the other thing is, I believe in our efforts at trying to do something that's really impactful, we're going about it the wrong way" by using a single provider rather than organizing a communitywide effort.

"I just don't think the effort that's been made up to this point is worth investigating further. It's expecting a different result using the same methods, and we've got a council this time that just said no."

Administrators for Father to the Fatherless declined to comment Thursday on the council's decision not to vote.

Hayes said Thursday the administration had tried to answer the council's questions. He had asked for a one-week delay at Tuesday's council meeting to deliver more information, but a motion to that effect died for lack of a second.

Now, he said, the administration will "recalibrate, regroup, and figure out a way to make sure these services are delivered to the people who need them, but it's not going to happen as quickly."

He said the call-in is tentatively rescheduled for March 28 or 29, depending on Berk's availability.

Everyone interviewed for this story agreed the whole focus should be on the need for high-quality, timely and helpful services for the community's at-risk kids.

"I think this is really, really important and we can ill afford not to collaborate on solutions," Berz said. "I think the VRI is a terrific program and I think the call-ins have been fabulous information and learning sessions for the community. I hope they continue."

Contact staff writer Judy Walton at jwalton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6416.

Contact staff writer Emmett Gienapp at egienapp@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6731.

Upcoming Events