KPD Officers joined City of Knoxville leaders and the Office of Community Safety and Empowerment to conduct two separate neighborhood canvasses on Monday and Tuesday night. The first canvas was in the Western Heights area, while the second canvas was in Montgomery Village.

The canvasses were an opportunity for the KPD and its partners to hear what residents want and need to improve the safety of their neighborhood.

Feedback gathered from residents will help inform the KPD as it prepares to implement two more place-based strategy zones. The place-based strategy zones are designed to reduce crime and improve quality of life by focusing efforts in small pockets of the City that have been disproportionately impacted by gun violence.

The KPD has had one PBS zone in place since November, giving extra attention to a 7.5-block area in East Knoxville. The goal is to increase officer visibility to prevent crime and help residents solve problems in their neighborhood by addressing codes violations, blighted properties and other quality of life issues.

Since the PBS zone was launched in East Knoxville last November, there have been no gun crimes inside the zone. KPD officers have devoted nearly 1,800 hours of attention to the area and had almost 1,500 resident contacts.

The KPD looks forward to expanding these efforts into the West and Central Districts.