The Chattanooga City Council took another step towards combating the gang problem.
The Council voted Tuesday night to fund a nearly 70-thousand dollar Ochs Center Study.
The gang assessment study passed the council in a seven to two vote.
Andrae McGary and Deborah Scott were the two "no" votes.
But other members of the Council called the study a necessary step in the war on crime.
Gang Task Force Coordinator Boyd Patterson explained, "There is an assessment committee that oversees the research partner. A lot of the what the research partner is going to be doing isn't just holding onto the data and then on August 1st or whenever that happens to be issuing that final report. We're going to be getting updates as they collect it."
The council also voted unanimously to ask the legislature for stricter penalties for gang members.
