Reducing Chicago’s Homicides

The number of homicides in Chicago in 2020 has already exceeded the number at this time in 2017—the year with the largest number of homicides in decades and possibly ever when you adjust for population. The editors of the Chicago Tribune assess the results of the efforts by present political leadership:

Police strategies so far are failing. Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s efforts to control violence have been inadequate. Gov. J.B. Pritzker as a candidate promised to address crime through a special agency, but creating more bureaucracy, again, has not reversed alarming trends on the streets of Chicago.

They propose augmenting police efforts with “street outreach”:

Street outreach works. In neighborhoods where outreach workers are deployed, violence is down. At READI Chicago, more than half of the young men who join the program remain engaged in it a year later, according to the University of Chicago Crime Lab. “When our guys are on duty — evenings and weekends — the shootings in those locations have dropped to almost zero,” wrote Arne Duncan, founder of CRED and education secretary under former President Barack Obama in a Tribune op-ed co-authored with READI executive director Eddie Bocanegra and Vaughn Bryant, who heads up Metropolitan Peace Initiatives.

And yet, street outreach remains under-resourced. Philanthropic groups provide much of the funding, though earlier this year Lightfoot pledged $6 million in city funds to street outreach efforts. More is needed. Arthur says the ranks of street outreach workers need to be doubled, or even quadrupled. At READI, it costs $20,000 annually to pay for each participant. But a year in an Illinois prison costs $38,000. “It’s not a cheap program,” Bocanegra tells us. “But when you compare it to prison? What we pay as taxpayers … for police, for the cost of detention? We’re not educating the public about that comparison.”

There’s no cure-all for the scourge of gun violence that has persisted for decades. Police can’t solve the problem alone. Neither can new laws or the next torrent of outrage. As Arthur says, “We need all hands on-deck.” A police department that commits to forging real and lasting trust in neighborhoods. Buy-in from the private sector to reverse yearslong disinvestment and seed job growth. A City Hall that focuses unrelentingly on crime reduction.

It’s certainly worth a try but let’s keep our eyes opened. There’s a narrow line between providing city or state support for “interrupters” and providing city or state funding for the gangs themselves. It has happened before. Additionally, there is the always-present temptation to fund NGOs that are the best footsoldiers for your election campaign than those who get the best results. There’s got to be serious, demanding oversight and that won’t come free.