WHAT WE DO

Crime

Public safety issues are vital to neighborhoods, cities and metropolitan areas. The Ochs Center has worked on crime from the block level to the regional level.  

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The Ochs Center collects and analyzes crime data annually as part of research support that it provides to Community Impact of Chattanooga. As part of the bi-annual State of Chattanooga Region Report, the Ochs Center conducts survey research on citizen attitudes about public safety and the police from throughout Hamilton County. The Report also provides detailed local jail data and data on offenders from Hamilton County going to and returning from the State prison system.  

Nationally, the Ochs Center published a 2006 analysis of homicides in midsize cities across the United States. The Ochs Center conducted research on the role that states can play in crime reduction as part of the Brookings Institution's report on older industrial cities. And, as part of the Brookings Institution's Blueprint for American Prosperity, the Ochs Center is examining the regionalization of crime problems and the role that the federal government can play in reducing crime in the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas.

Ochs Center staff have also worked with local government officials in Michigan and Tennessee to identify and develop criminal justice strategies designed to reduce the fiscal impact of crime reduction strategies without compromising on public safety.