![]() ![]() In June, for example, he introduced legislation that would fine kids and young adults for breaking certain laws - like breaking curfew, public intoxication and having a gun - and require them to undergo family counseling. But he’s also pushing ordinances aimed specifically at tamping down crime. Lopez wants the police department to address looting and pervasive carjackings by revisiting chase policies and procedures that he said prevent cops from apprehending crime suspects. “Many of our officers are not arresting people, are letting crimes that happen right in front of them go by because they don’t want to be misconstrued as being racist or being held liable for any kind of misconceived notions of brutality or whatever,” he said. Lopez called for more aggressive policing, a “get back to basics” approach he said is needed to contain crime before shifting to programs that target poverty and the cycle of violence. Raymond Lopez (15th) has emerged as one of the mayor’s loudest detractors and a more conservative alderperson. And we’re going to keep doing what we know works.” A call to go ‘back to basics’īut Lightfoot’s wide-ranging response to crime hasn’t won over critics on the City Council.Īld. “Our people want us to respond, and we’re doing that. “Right now, we’re in a crisis,” Lightfoot told the Sun-Times. Brown promised more detectives to solve murders and more cops to engage with communities as he reflected on the “challenging year here in the city of Chicago.” During a news conference last Thursday, Supt. “That we hold violent dangerous criminals and gang members accountable but we also at the same time really double down on our efforts to get at the root cause of crime.”ĭespite those efforts, the number of killings and shootings in the city has continued to rise, including sharp increases in some of the 15 crime-plagued neighborhoods targeted for her anti-violence spending.īut with the police department’s ranks depleted, alderpersons have been left to battle over police resources with little guidance on deployment numbers. “It’s absolutely essential that we respond to that fear, not by swinging the pendulum one way or the other to the extreme but by making sure we lean into what works,” she said. ![]() Lightfoot acknowledged all city residents, regardless of where they live or what they think of policing, share a unifying connection: “They fear that they themselves could be a victim of crime.” In an interview with the Sun-Times, Lightfoot said the combined strategies go beyond what she called “putting cops on dots” - or simply throwing more police officers at high-crime areas. Lightfoot’s violence prevention plan also includes hundreds of millions in spending on economic development programs in the city’s poorest, most under-resourced neighborhoods. Brown also announced the department had “rededicated” to community policing strategies, and Lightfoot committed $36 million to community-based anti-violence programs in 2021 and boosted funding to more than $80 million for 2022. The 2021 OT costs were budgeted for $150 million.īrown launched a pair of citywide tactical teams to suppress crime with more than 500 total officers combined. ![]() Police overtime spending reached nearly $180 million in 2020, as officers were called to manage repeated demonstrations and looting over the summer. Lightfoot and her newly appointed police superintendent, David Brown, rolled out tactics that offered something for those on either side of the debate. ![]()
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