Knoxville — A Florida man that is looking to relocate to East Tennessee says he's worried about shootings when it comes to the safety of his family.
Shawn Cheever is trying to decide if he wants to move with his daughter and father to East Tennessee. He asked about crime in Knoxville on a local Facebook crime page over the weekend, and hundreds of people responded saying they felt safe.
Hundreds of people responded to the post, and Cheever says 90 percent of the responses were positive.
"That makes us feel better because it shows that people are noticing the effort we make," Knoxville Police Department chief deputy over investigations Eve Thomas said. "We're out there trying, and trying to work hard on it."
They're working hard to prevent future homicides.
KPD averages about 25 homicides a year. So far this year, it's investigated 13 homicides. That's one more than it saw this time last year. Thomas says most are drug-related.
"I think a lot of the things we have are drug-related issues, we'll have the outliers that are domestic related and things," Thomas said. "But most of it has to do with drugs."
Data from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation shows the murder rate in Knoxville last year was 0.18 per 1,000 people.
That's similar to the rates in Chattanooga and Nashville at 0.17 and 0.16, respectively.
The murder rate in Memphis is higher at 0.28 per 1,000 people.
To keep those rates down, KPD has a 14-officer team that specializes in reducing violent crime in the city by being proactive.
"We look for those drug arrests, those illegal weapons, try to get that off the street. We have those folks that head out immediately, identify people who have been around violence," Thomas said.
Cheever says because most of the comments were positive, he's planning a family trip this summer to check out East Tennessee.
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