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What is our Agenda for elections
Crime is clearly one of the biggest problems facing Chicago today. Beyond the fact that one of a government’s most essential roles in society is protecting its citizens, our crime issue exacerbates our city’s other biggest problems. How can children be expected to succeed in the classroom if they walk to and from school in fear of being harmed? How are citizens not expected to leave for the suburbs if they feel their city government can’t protect them. How are companies supposed to relocate and bring new jobs to our city if their employees fear the city of Chicago? We must make solving our crime issue priority number one and be willing to make whatever investments or changes necessary to bring peace to Chicago.
If we are going to bring this much-needed peace to our city, we will have to increase funding to law enforcement so that they can adequately investigate crimes and see that those guilty parties are fairly punished. We need to invest more in mental health professionals and violence prevention groups because our crime problem requires a holistic solution. We are also going to need to invest more so our police can monitor hotbeds of crime because with much of our shootings being retaliatory, stopping one incidence of gun violence can have cascading effects.
The most important thing we can do as a city to relieve our crime crisis is to empower our police department to solve more shooting crimes. In 2019, Chicago only charged criminals with 12.9% of homicides. Crime Stats Link The city uses clearance rates of around 50% because the cases were “cleared by a category the department calls “exceptional,” which means Police have identified a suspect, but either the suspect is dead, or prosecutors said there was not enough evidence to approve charges.” Tribune Link Regardless of how this number is accounted for, it is far too low. Las Vegas, for instance, boasted an 87% homicide clearance rate last year.
With clearance rates like these, criminals feel that they can continue to get away with murder, and victims’ families are left to know that the person who murdered their loved one will never face justice, leading to a distrust in our police force. This also exacerbates our violence problem because when gangs know their rivals will not get prosecuted, they take the law into their own hands and engage in retaliatory gun shootings. To alleviate this massive problem, we need to hire more detectives. Studies from Phoenix have proven that what could be considered common sense is that the more officers you assign the investigate murders, the higher likelihood you have of solving the crime. Phoenix Study More detectives will also help our police forces solve more non-fatal shootings. Studies into Boston’s Police Department show that they are more likely to solve murder cases than shooting cases, which might strike people as odd since you should have alive witnesses in shooting cases. At the same time, Boston deployed similar resources at the beginning of a shooting regardless if there was a death right afterward. But in non-fatal, the investigation ends after two days, wherein murders, it continues. And while half of the murders were solved in two days, the other half required more prolonged investigations. Murders are twice as likely to be solved than non-fatal shootings due to this increased investigation.
Solving more non-violent shootings will not only keep more dangerous criminals off of our streets, but it will help to stop the out-of-control spiral of retaliation crimes, further limiting the amount of gun violence in our city. Link
Not only are more detectives needed to solve violent crimes, but we also need more patrolmen in the areas of the city that suffer from the most crime. Studies have shown that each additional police officer in a city generates $350k worth of reduced crime victimization. Link to study Police walking around and being present in crime hotspots act to deter crime in two significant ways; one is that people are far less likely to commit crimes when there are police officers nearby, and secondly, if Police are constantly patrolling areas, the fear of committing a crime when the Police could be just around the block deters it from happening. The evidence showing more “hot spot” policing resulting in lowering crime is overwhelming. Link to study Additionally, having more police officers in the system alleviates many instances of bad policing. Longer hours, back-to-back night shifts, and overtime policing have led to higher levels of public complaints. Everyone should want a police force with solid engagement with the community, which can be implemented by having more Police.
Our enhanced police force should also be engaging in community policing practices that have shown to decrease levels of violence, like problem-oriented policing and focused deterrence. Problem-Oriented Policing is defined as when Police work in high-risk communities unrelated to particular crimes but work with community members to address violence. Link Focused deterrence “Focused deterrence strategies combine law enforcement, community mobilization, and social services in an attempt to reduce offending behavior for specific crime types. A key feature of this crime control strategy involves the direct communications of the consequences of continued criminal offending and the availability of social services to targeted subjects.” Link
Offenders in our prisons and jails suffer from mental health issues at a rate of 5-7x of our general population. Link It is clear that myriad problems are leading to our current crime crisis, but at the forefront of any strategy to create the safe city that Chicagoans deserve must focus on mental health.
We must invest in mental health professionals who can answer applicable 9-1-1 calls in place of police officers. This is effective since mental health professionals are often more adept at responding to these issues, which allows us to free up police resources for patrolling crime hot spots. A similar program in Denver has been started with encouraging results; according to a recent report, “Since June 2020, the Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) has deployed medical and behavioral health clinicians to respond to over 2,200 low-risk calls reporting trespassing, intoxication, or mental health crises involving poverty, homelessness or addiction. In all that time, STAR teams have never called for police back-up due to a safety issue, according to their January report.” Link
Great non-profits are working in our communities to combat our violence program. For example, through a combination of “Street Outreach, Coaching & Counseling, Workforce Development, and Advocacy & Prevention,” Chicago CRED has proven that meaningful change is possible. The City of Chicago needs to fund, support, and partner with organizations like this in search of holistic solutions to our city’s problem. Link
Not only are more detectives needed to solve violent crimes, but we also need more patrolmen in the areas of the city that suffer from the most crime. Studies have shown that each additional police officer in a city generates $350k worth of reduced crime victimization. Link to study Police walking around and being present in crime hotspots act to deter crime in two significant ways; one is that people are far less likely to commit crimes when there are police officers nearby, and secondly, if Police are constantly patrolling areas, the fear of committing a crime when the Police could be just around the block deters it from happening. The evidence showing more “hot spot” policing resulting in lowering crime is overwhelming. Link to study Additionally, having more police officers in the system alleviates many instances of bad policing. Longer hours, back-to-back night shifts, and overtime policing have led to higher levels of public complaints. Everyone should want a police force with solid engagement with the community, which can be implemented by having more Police.
Our enhanced police force should also be engaging in community policing practices that have shown to decrease levels of violence, like problem-oriented policing and focused deterrence. Problem-Oriented Policing is defined as when Police work in high-risk communities unrelated to particular crimes but work with community members to address violence. Link Focused deterrence “Focused deterrence strategies combine law enforcement, community mobilization, and social services in an attempt to reduce offending behavior for specific crime types. A key feature of this crime control strategy involves the direct communications of the consequences of continued criminal offending and the availability of social services to targeted subjects.” Link
Mayor Rahm Emmanuel started the One Summer Chicago program to help our young citizens to get jobs over the summer. Link These jobs not only give kids something productive to do while school is out, but they also help them build the skills and confidence they need for their future. Studies have shown that the net savings of our program are between $1,700 and $1,900 per participant, with almost “all these benefits coming from saving the cost of crimes not committed.” Link We need continued investment in these programs, outreach to more students to encourage them to enroll, and we need to reach out to our business community to provide as many of these opportunities as possible.
It makes sense to not enforce cash bail for non-violent or misdemeanor offenses, as our past has shown bail separates often innocent people from their families and their employment, leading to devastating results. But violent criminals and criminals who use weapons in their offenses should be kept off the street until a jury can try them.
We also need to invest in our judicial system to ensure that any citizen charged with a crime is given their constitutional right to a speedy trial. While we need to ensure that dangerous criminals are kept off the street, we still need to ensure that a speedy trial takes place so innocent people may return to their community and guilty people can be dealt with their punishment and begin their path to rehabilitation.
In 2021, when President Joe Biden passed his bipartisan infrastructure bill, it included $15 billion to replace our nation’s lead water pipes. We must develop a plan with the State of Illinois to get as much funding as possible and use it as efficiently as possible to rid our city’s drinking water of lead. Studies have shown that “Cities that used lead pipes had homicide rates 24 percent higher than those without lead pipes, on average; places with more acidic water saw bigger increases.” This result is specifically dangerous for boys who “just a 1-unit increase in blood-lead levels increased the likelihood of a school suspension by 6 percent, and the likelihood of being detained in a juvenile correctional facility (a relatively rare event). By 57 percent.” Link We cannot let typical government bureaucracy get in our way of implementing these dollars to stop poisoning the children of Chicago.
Recent studies Link have shown that in Denmark collecting and registering the DNA of convicted felons have shown to decrease the chance that the offenders commits additional crimes in the future. According to the study, “being added to the DNA database reduces the probability of a new conviction within the following year by 42%, and reduces the number of new convictions by 49%. These results remain large and statistically significant for at least 3 years after the initial charge.” This effect is demonstrated to lower crime in the future by both making it easier for police to catch criminals in the future and thus getting them off the street after their next crime. Additionally, it serves as a stronger deterrence to criminals as they know their DNA is on record and they are more likely to be caught for their next crime. The study also shows that for younger offenders the implementation of the DNA database increased their educational enrollment and for older offenders it increased their employment. Chicago needs to pursue further low cost, non-invasive ways to lower crime in our city.
Automate as much traffic enforcement as possible. This both decreases the number of negative interactions between Police in civilians that have shown to have the possibility of tragic consequences. This will also free up more officers to focus on hot spot policing. But this should not be considered a revenue generator for the city. Too often, the financial burdens fall heaviest on those that can least afford to carry them. Instead, by automating and thus capturing traffic violations at higher percentages, we can lower the fines for individuals and continue to see decreases in traffic violations. We can assess higher traffic violations for repeat offenders or offenders in school zones.
The well-known crime researcher Mark Kleiman has suggested that governments institute mandatory sobriety for offenders whose crime was linked to drug abuse. Studies in Hawaii have shown that “frequently testing probationers for drugs or alcohol and implementing concise jail sentences or other punishments for failing on any occasion” have reduced crime. We should add programs like this to our toolbox because we know crime and drug abuse are so often linked.
Even small, seemingly meaningless interventions like greening vacant lots have been shown to reduce both crimes and increase the feeling of safety in a community. Link Studies from New York City have also shown that after adding new street lights to public housing developments, there was an observable 4% decrease in crime. The majority of residents felt favorable about these new lights. Link We must take an all-hands-on-deck approach to our crime issue, and any idea, no matter how small or apparently trivial, should be tried to stop this crime surge.
