Police Chief Freeman Cooper said there was frequent publicity about shootings in Chattanooga during 2009, but he said they were actually down from the previous year.
He told the City Council in a yearly public safety report that the city had 80 shootings last year - three less than 2008.
Aggravated assaults (1,160) and rapes (39) were at five-year lows as were motor vehicle thefts (893).
Burglaries were up by four percent. The city had 2,868 burglaries in 2009.
Robberies rose four percent also with 530 for the year.
There were 19 homicides, down from the previous 20.
Total crime figures were 14,385 for the year.
Chief Cooper said the city is 47 officers short of the needed number. He said when he came into office in 2007 his goal had been to reach 500 sworn officers.
He told the council, "We need to fill our vacancies and add 10 officers above that. We need to have two new academies this year." That would produce 60 officers.
He said city police officers made over 18,000 arrests and had just 50 complaints go to Internal Affairs. He said just 21 of those were sustained.