Three grassroots organizations will be involved in an intensified hyperlocal approach to public safety on the West Side, the city announced Tuesday. A fourth will be conducted on the South Side.
Mayor Brandon Johnson and his staff made his announcement Oct. 8 when he hosted a public meeting at the Moore Park Fieldhouse with the Austin community to update the People’s Plan for Community Safety, a new strategy to reduce crime and violence in Chicago’s highest-risk communities.
The mayor said that the Chicago Westside Branch NAACP will work in Austin, Teamwork Englewood in Englewood, and Beyond the Ball in South Lawndale. A “community convener” for West Garfield Park will be announced later, he said.
Johnson said the organizations will “serve as the community leaders for the People’s Plan for Community Safety, working to provide services and coordinated activities in partnership with other community stakeholders.”
“Working with city agencies and departments, creating a better, stronger City of Chicago will no longer happen in isolation and silos,” Johnson said, adding, “these organizations provide the knowledge and the understanding for what is needed in these communities.”
The People’s Plan was launched in December. The Oct. 8 meeting provided an update and an opportunity for city officials to hear from the Austin community.
Johnson, Deputy Mayor Garien Gatewood and 28th Ward Alderman Jason Ervin were among those who spoke at the event.
Gatewood described the plan as a layered approach to public safety, where the first step was to determine which communities most needed investment and resources. For Austin, the two block groups outlined in the People’s Plan are Madison to Adams Street and West End to Adams Street, both near Laramie and Lavergne.
“Obviously, the purposeful disinvestment that those blocks have seen[historically] won’t change overnight, but now you have a commitment. You have an anchor organization who will be working hand-in-hand,” Gatewood said.
The People’s Plan
The plan has a two-pronged approach; people-based and place-based. People-placed investment and support comes in the form of immediately interrupting violence by “supporting the people most acutely impacted,” according to the plan. The place-based approach involves addressing “the root causes of violence, focusing on high opportunity neighborhoods.”
Those in attendance were given a chance to provide feedback and brainstorm in small groups.
Among those who gave her thoughts was Lacovia Harper, who lives in Austin and works as the Austin legal and medical advocate for Resilience, a non-profit that supplies support and services for victims of sexual violence.
“It was just really nice to hear him ask questions of: what are the youth wanting? What is missing? How do we get the youth more involved? How do we bridge that gap? And then I offered advice on being more involved in the community, because then they [youth] value the community more.”
Harper said that residents shouldn’t have to go far or outside of their neighborhood to access schools, grocery stores and public parks or go to other neighborhoods for trick-or-treating.
“It’s just about making our neighborhoods safe, but we need to take that power back as well so that we actually have a sense of community within our neighborhoods,” she said.
Following the small group discussion, Johnson asked Gatewood and CPD Chief of Patrol Jon Hein about their work in Austin and about the progress so far.
Gatewood said the Office of Community Safety launched two pilot programs over the summer:
· A pilot program, “Take Back the Block,” where the office, with city department partners, cleaned and repaired street infrastructure on a small block-radius and followed up with department resources and support;
· The office’s rapid response protocol to supply resources and services for victims of mass shootings and tender-age children who were victims of gun violence. Gatewood said the protocol was activated 40 times over the summer.
Hein said the larger collaboration between the police and government has “definitely helped” with driving crime and violence statistics down in the city.
According to the city’s Violence Reduction Dashboard, the year-to-date crime and violence statistics across Chicago on Oct. 9, showed a 7.9% decrease in homicide victimizations; a 13.7% decrease in robbery victimizations; and a 22.4% decrease in vehicular hijackings. Aggravated battery was up 5.4% as well as aggravated assault with a 3.8% increase and multi-shooting victimizations seeing a 6.6% increase, when compared to the same period in 2023.
Looking at Austin’s year-to-date statistics when compared to 2023, the city’s data shows a 10.8% increase in homicide victimizations, and a 4.3% decrease in robberies. Vehicular hijacking victimizations are down 17.4%. Non-shooting homicide victimizations have increased 25% and aggravated battery is up 8.5%. Aggravated assault saw a 3% decrease.
When Johnson asked about what is being done right now to decrease gun violence in Chicago, Gatewood pointed to the city’s lawsuit against the Glock manufacturer and also the mass-shooting victim rapid-response protocol. Hein also spoke about the successes of the Chicago Police Department’s weapon turn-in program.
“Our weapon turn-in program has been incredible. We ran six of those year-to-date with more to come towards the end of the year. I think recovering close to 696 weapons, and every weapon taken off the street, obviously, is a weapon that can take someone’s life,” Hein said.
“We continue to see trends and crime decrease, but obviously we need to continue to do our work to help people feel safe. You know, numbers alone don’t bring safety. It is the work that you do to make sure people feel safe,” Gatewood said.
Hein said the CPD’s new robbery task force created in May has contributed to the reduction of more than 1,000 robberies in Area Four, which includes the 10th, 11th, and 12th police districts. These districts include: Austin, East and West Garfield Park, Humboldt Park, Near and Lower West Side, North and South Lawndale, Garfield Ridge and West Town.
In his closing remarks, Johnson also addressed education in Austin and noted that Austin was ranked highest in the number of youth employed through the administration’s summer jobs program, One Summer Chicago.
“We’re going to invest in our young people. Make no mistake about it, I’m going to do everything in my power to ensure that we transform our public schools so that kids in Austin can actually go to the schools in Austin,” Johnson said.
Looking ahead, Gatewood said, “we expect our community conveners to represent the community and make sure we have community input and buy in. Folks have talked about that, and now it’s time to show up.”