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Beer board asks police to place surveillance camera near Shady’s Corner after regulatory review
Summary
After a regulatory report documenting 18 incident reports in the block around Shady’s Corner, the Chattanooga Beer Board voted to ask the police department to place a surveillance camera in the 1401–1402 Cemetery Avenue area and to forward the request to city council.
The Chattanooga beer board voted to request that the Chattanooga Police Department place a surveillance camera in the area of 1401–1402 Cemetery Avenue after hearing a regulatory review of complaints and incident reports tied to the block around Shady’s Corner.
Sergeant Cowan, who presented the regulatory unit’s review, told the board that “that dive found 18 reports were filed during this time period,” including driving-under-the-influence arrests, narcotics violations, assaults, weapons violations and disorderly-conduct reports. Cowan said those reports were associated with the block area around 1401–1402 Cemetery Avenue and that “none of these occurred inside of the bar.” He said he had consulted the Hamilton County District Attorney’s office and did not have enough to file a citation at this time but would continue to monitor complaints.
Board member JW moved that regulatory and CPD place camera surveillance in the 1401–1402 Cemetery Avenue area and the board voted to approve the request. When the chair called the roll, the motion carried with an affirmative majority and one recorded no vote. The chair asked staff to prepare a record of the motion for presentation to the police department and to city council and to follow up at the next meeting.
During discussion, legal staff and board members emphasized limits on board action while criminal investigations are open. Legal counsel noted that the city beer-code hearing process requires the city to meet a burden of proof to show a violation occurred and that some evidence-gathering steps may be constrained while cases are pending. Cowan said members of the public and nearby businesses should submit videos and incident reports directly to regulatory or police to ensure they are logged and available for review.
Several residents and neighborhood representatives urged the board to act. Public commenter Hamid El Amin said his community has collected video and described repeated disturbances that he said stem from activity around Shady’s Corner. Sherry Case clarified that a camera in a nearby Jefferson Heights location had been requested through a city council office and installed for construction-site monitoring and later community monitoring. Calandra Smith of the Hamilton County Coalition asked the board to clarify how citations and disorderly-place findings are tied to businesses when incidents occur on streets rather than inside establishments.
The board’s request does not itself impose a restriction on any business; it asks police to consider placing surveillance and asks city council to consider the board’s request. The board recorded that it will follow up on the request at its next meeting.
