KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Community leaders gathered on Thursday to discuss violence prevention, and to discuss strategies to address gang activity in Knoxville.
Paul Noel, the Knoxville Police Department Chief of Police, was among them. He said there are around 1,500 gang members spread across the city. A 2021 report said several shootings involved people already affiliated with gangs.
"It's no secret that Knoxville has gang activity in our city. You know, I've talked about it a lot in my 18 months here, being chief," he said. "They focus on certain areas, and then they sell guns, they sell or trade narcotics, to fund the criminal enterprise."
A 2021 Gun Violence Problem Analysis showed around 12% of incidents between 2019 and 2021 had a "group-related" motive, compared to more than 59% of incidents that involved gang members. The analysis effectively found that while a minority of gun violence incidents were motivated by gang activity, more than half of all gun violence incidents involved gang members.
"We have a wide variety of different affiliated groups here. You know, some people have strong to connections to gangs in Chicago or Los Angeles, or the people loosely in Philly, and it really does run the gamut," he said.
The report also found around 10% of all shootings from 2019 to 2021 had connections to other cities. More than half of those shootings were tied to Detroit, the report said.
"We have a strong connection to Detroit. Where drugs are coming down from Detroit, firearms are going back up. So, it's something that our Organized Crime Unit patrol officers take very seriously," he said.
During Thursday's presentation, the report included maps illustrating where most shootings happened in Knoxville. The maps revealed shootings concentrated around areas where authorities knew gang activity occurred.
Maps illustrating gun violence incidents and areas of gang activity in Knoxville
While the report showed many crimes and shootings are perpetrated by gang members, it also showed crime overall is falling in Knoxville.
"A lot of times people tell me that, you know, East Knoxville is a high crime area. Well, you know, I'm very proud to say that we cut homicides in East Knoxville by 57% last year. And that's due to the hard work of the men and women in the Knoxville Police Department, our patrol officers and detectives working with the community," he said.
He said community involvement was key to reducing violent crime.