CHICAGO | Chicago police vowed to initiate plans Saturday to combat hot spots of crime in the city.
The Police Department's new anti-gang strategy comes on the heels of a recommendation by two Illinois Democratic legislators last week to use the Illinois National Guard to bolster police presence in the city's high-crime areas. That plan received a cool reception from state politicians.
Chicago police said they are reorganizing all gang units into a citywide force that will report to one commander. The plan involves deploying strategic response teams to criminal hot spots, a police news release states.
The areas most affected by violent crime account for about 9 percent of the city, Police Superintendent Jody Weis has said. His plan would deploy additional resources into areas identified by analysts as emerging hot spots.
The saturation teams are a response to the number of Chicago homicides through Monday. The 113 deaths match the number of U.S. losses in Afghanistan and Iraq for the same period, state Rep. John Fritchey, D-Chicago, said during a news conference April 25. Fritchey and state Rep. LaShawn Ford, also a Chicago Democrat, made the proposal to send the Illinois National Guard to Chicago.
On Thursday, two Republicans joined a state lawmaker during a news conference to denounce that idea, suggesting the Cook County sheriff could squeeze 150 officers for the same purpose.
Jimmy Lee Tillman II and Frederick Collins hosted the conference with state Sen. Roger Keats, a GOP candidate for Cook County Board president, warning that military units are trained to defeat an enemy, not interact with civilians.
Tillman is a commissioner candidate for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, and Collins is a candidate for Cook County sheriff.
Tillman said it would take just one mistake for the Guard to find itself facing a hostile crowd.
The son of former Chicago Alderman Dorothy Tillman, he noted in 1968 -- the last time the Guard was deployed on Chicago streets -- his father and mother were stopped by Guard units working to control riots on the West Side.
Tillman said the story of the confrontation -- in which a soldier reportedly pointed a rifle at his mother's pregnant belly -- grew into a family parable about the application of military power on a civilian population.
Keats said he once commanded a military police unit and agreed the Guard poses a threat to civil rights.
Collins said the use of Cook County sheriff's police would allow people who have a local investment to interact with their community. He said the plan would send units trained in gang issues to suburbs, areas that sometimes are not as well-equipped to handle gang problems.
Ford said he, too, explored the alternative of using sheriff's police. He said he understands the need for sensitivity, particularly in minority communities.
Tom Tresser, a Green Party candidate for the Cook County Board, said at the conference he favors a long-term solution of economic development and greater educational and recreational opportunities for residents in those areas.
People in those communities feel they are in a police state, Tresser said. They are looking for jobs and programs, he said.
