According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Department Superintendent Garry McCarthy today unveiled another strategy to help reduce gang violence in the city. The announcement comes after an especially violent Memorial Day weekend.
* McCarthy said the CPD's anti-gang strategy is working since shootings have dropped by 7 percent since the department implemented its gang audits strategy that includes sharing gang intelligence information with officers on beat duty, the Chicago Tribune reported.
* This gang intelligence information includes everything from mug shots, affiliations and alliances of gang members and outstanding arrest warrants.
* The efforts to tackle gang violence from the city's 59 gangs and 625 gang factions specifically emphasize trying to figure out when and where gang retaliations will take place in order to prevent them from happening.
* By establishing its own ballistics unit, the CPD is moving toward re-establishing its crime lab.
* The mayor also spoke about anti-crime strategies already in place like the gang audits and the use of gang intervention teams.
* According to CBS Chicago, the city is using new computer-generated analysis, which is being installed in more squad cars, to help pinpoint the statistically backed probable locations of retaliation sites but also gang congregation sites like convenience stores, liquor stores, and other businesses.
* The city is assessing business complaints from residents regarding gang activity. Since April, four liquor establishments have been shut down, 15 have been referred for disciplinary action and potential closure, and another 30 have been put on a watch list.
* The program has not been fully implemented and while it has helped increase gun seizures by 20 percent, McCarthy said the full implementation could have probably prevented several shootings last weekend.
* WGN News reported at least 41 people had been shot from Friday through Sunday night, with 10 dying.
Rachel Bogart provides an in-depth look at current environmental issues and local Chicago news stories. As a college student from the Chicago suburbs pursuing two science degrees, she applies her knowledge and passion to both topics to garner further public awareness.
