Newswise — Chicago Police Department management strategies, technological innovations, specialized units and interagency partnerships have likely contributed to the recent decrease in Chicago's public violence and homicides, according to a University of Illinois at Chicago study of the department.
The study, "Reducing Public Violence and Homicide in Chicago: Strategies and Tactics of the Chicago Police Department," examined department initiatives from the past two years that coincided with a 25 percent decrease in homicides in 2004.
The study found that the department exhibited strong adaptability, established a central command structure utilizing new technology, and produced useful street intelligence to quickly deploy officers to hot spots of violence.
Dennis Rosenbaum, UIC professor of criminal justice, and graduate student Cody Stephens, the report's co-authors, were granted full access to the police department.
"One of the unique features of Chicago's model is the attention to stabilizing particular blocks, after enforcement, through the coordinated efforts of other city services, CAPS and community groups," said Rosenbaum, director of UIC's Center for Research in Law and Justice. CAPS, the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy, is the CPD's innovative community policing approach, which involves the public and other city agencies to identify and solve neighborhood crime problems.
The UIC study included interviews with nearly 40 command-level personnel, field and meeting observations, a questionnaire of over 70 management-level employees and analysis of department data on crime and field activities.
Besides reviewing the management style of Police Superintendent Phil Cline, the study also explored the objectives, underlying assumptions and outcomes associated with various police efforts to combat street violence in recent years.
The researchers commended the department for holding all personnel accountable for violence reduction and for reviewing hot-spot deployment and unit activities on a weekly basis.
The study concluded that the police department actions are consistent with recent trends in policing and that the department should be mindful of potential challenges in the future.
"Possible community issues range from displacement of crime to potential negative community responses due to the amplified enforcement efforts," Rosenbaum said. "For long-term prevention, the CPD is encouraged to take a leadership role in building interagency partnerships that address the root causes of violence as well as the visible manifestations of the problem."
The Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority supported the study. The report, including charts and statistics detailing crime rates, enforcement efforts and personnel support, is online at www.icjia.state.il.us
UIC's Center for Research in Law and Justice is the focal point of scholarly and applied research in the areas of violence, crime, law and criminal justice. As part of the department of criminal justice at UIC, it conducts research and evaluation projects, provides technical assistance and educational programs to local communities, and sponsors seminars and presentations by leading scholars and practitioners.
UIC ranks among the nation's top 50 universities in federal research funding and is Chicago's largest university with 25,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state's major public medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the world. For more information about UIC, visit http://www.uic.edu
NOTE: Please refer to the institution as the University of Illinois atChicago on first reference and UIC on second reference."University of Illinois" and "U. of I." are often assumed to refer toour sister campus in Urbana-Champaign.
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