KPD officers joined the City of Knoxville’s Office of Community Safety and Empowerment, Turn Up Knox violence interrupters, and City leaders, service providers and stakeholders to conduct a neighborhood re-canvas of the East District place-based strategy zone on Thursday evening.

The East PBS zone was started in October 2023, and is a 7.5-block area around Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Chestnut Street. The area was selected to receive extra care and attention due to the disproportionate historical impact of gun violence.

Since the inception of the East PBS zone, KPD officers have conducted regular, intentional patrols in the zone, with a goal of increasing visibility, deterring crime and connecting residents to city resources to improve their quality of life. The success of those efforts is being measured by the number of proactive, positive police contacts, the absence of crime, and feedback from residents.

Since the East PBS zone was established, there have been no fatal or non-fatal shootings in the zone.
But Thursday’s re-canvas was an opportunity to measure residents’ perspective of the success of the place-based strategy initiative over the past year.

During the re-canvas, residents were asked if the place-based effort has made a positive change in their community, improved their sense of safety, and what resources are still needed to continue the upward trajectory of the community.

The feedback that was collected will continue to shape the place-based strategies moving forward.