How is it possible that the Chattanooga Police Department’s information officer did not know about the two kidnappings until several days after the second kidnapping took place? What is going on in the local media that let this one slip through the cracks too?

I’ve seen a lot of regurgitation of the facts as supplied by the police department, but no evidence that the media is asking any hard questions as to why it took so long for this to surface.

The CPD has obviously done their part to catch these thugs, but only after a second kidnapping took place where the kidnappers made the stupid mistake of making phone calls from the victim’s phone.

Reports that began to surface on these kidnappings early this week included numerous date and time errors and even divulged the name of the 17-year-old minor suspect. Who supplied this flawed information and when? Sgt. Weary says that she is going to check with 911 dispatching to see why she didn’t get a page. Good luck on getting them to answer the phone to get that answer, but maybe the media should follow up on this and see what she finds out.

One has to wonder if the second kidnapping could have been prevented in some way if potential victims and the criminals themselves had seen the story about the first kidnapping on the nightly news. These kidnappers probably watched the local news on Thursday and Friday hoping to see their crime on TV and to show their gang leaders what a good job they did. Maybe hearing the words FBI, TBI, hate crime, etc… would have convinced them to keep a low profile and stop the kidnapping before they got caught and/or before somebody got hurt or killed.

Robert Maner

* * *

Mr. Maner,
I am afraid that your feelings in regards to media relations with the police on this case have no bearing on how the parties involved were captured. At times the media outlet can be an important tool to a case and at times it will hinder the case.

I firmly believe that we were able to swiftly obtain all parties involved because the case was not spotlighted and they were essentially caught by surprise. Even if the case had been put on the news I highly doubt it would have prevented anything. I have learned in my experience that if a criminal wants to do something they are going to do it and the majority of the time they don’t care about the police and surely not the media.

I am recalled to a string of robberies that occurred a few years back. The robber donned a Spider Man mask to conduct his crimes. The case was quickly spotlighted. However, the crimes continued to occur until his luck ran out and he was caught.

I can assure you that as soon as the first crime was reported that a team of investigators were working diligently on the matter. Once information was obtained about potential suspects Chief Dodd made this a top priority and even more investigators were pulled in and the hunt was on. Most of the officers involved averaged 17-hour work days and some slept at the service center. We should be very proud to have people willing to go above and beyond to protect the citizens of this great city. We cannot take this job personal. However, 'we' will not tolerate persons being tortured like this by an animal-like criminal element. I implore you to please have faith in the police department and what they are doing.

Curtis Penney