City Councilman Yusuf Hakeem said he has been studying alternative approaches to the city's current Violence Reduction Initiative, which he said earlier is not effective.
He said citizen solutions include brighter street lighting, transparent crime data, bringing youth and adults closer together, building trust between citizens and government, and providing better housing and education and job preparation.
Councilman Hakeem cited an article by Michael Gerson on the failure of "the imposition of order in impoverished communities through police and prisons."
The Gerson article says the better approach is to find "what can be done to encourage economically and socially healthy communities where order is self-creating rather than imposed."
Another approach, he said, is the Take One program in which citizens "take an active role in the improvement of public safety by helping offenders find their way to a new, productive and crime-free way of life."
He said he has also studied an article by Eldrin Bell on community oriented policing and the Community Collaborative Partners effort.
Councilman Hakeem said, "As a response to Mayor Berke's retort to my assessment of the current state of the VRI program, to be specific, it is reported that Mayor Berke said, 'If you don't think the VRI is working, what is your alternative?'
"I assembled ideas and concepts from citizens that I consider reasonable and should be discussed by the elected leaders of Chattanooga. In addition, I included outlines of the Violence Reduction Programs that have been used around the country.
"The goal of this effort was to give Mayor Berke, City Council members and the public some alternatives to consider, whole or in part. If elected officials of Chattanooga are not pleased with the level of violence on our streets, then maybe these ideas will spark thoughts on how existing programs can be tweaked to accomplish our goal of greater safety for our citizens."