Community Policing in Chicago, Year Three

• NCJ Number: 171644
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 121 pages
• Grant Number(s): 93-DB-CX-0017; 94-IJ-CX-0046; 95-IJ-CX-0056
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation

Annotation

This report examines the progress of Chicago's community policing program, dubbed CAPS (Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy), at the end of its third year.

Abstract

The program was first developed in five experimental districts. Beginning in the fall of 1994, elements of the program began to expand to the entire city. These included the coordinated delivery of city services, training for patrol officers and their supervisors, and the formation of beat teams and rapid response units. Dispatching procedures were developed to keep beat officers at work in their assigned areas and give them time to attend meetings and engage the community. New avenues for citizen involvement in policing were created by the formation of district advisory committees, and local community beat meetings were held throughout the city. Civilian administrative managers were at work in every district by the spring of 1995. Teams of civilians and police have been training citizens in their new roles as partners in local problem-solving efforts. A new police department General Order released in April 1996 formalized these activities. A 1996 survey found that between 40 and 60 percent of all demographic groups were aware of the program. In the community beat meetings observed, the most commonly discussed problems pertained to social disorder, followed by problems of physical decay. Other information is provided in this report on joint community-police training, community mobilization around CAPS, progress toward citywide implementation, and District Advisory Committees. The report also reviews some of the issues that Chicago will be confronting during the next year. A list of project papers, 9 figures, and 9 tables