Where will the next high crime neighborhoods be? (Chicago, Bush: felon, lawyers)

[prairiestate]

Clout St: Emanuel unveils plan to shift 500 police officers to high-crime areas

If I had to guess, I would say neighborhoods losing these 500 officers. Here's an idea, why not hire 500 ADDITIONAL officers?

Oh, that's right, the city can't afford it. Rahm could get rid of the patronage employees, but that would upset the machine. He couldn't do that after the machine handed him the election.

[OhAcid]

Originally Posted by prairiestate

Clout St: Emanuel unveils plan to shift 500 police officers to high-crime areas

If I had to guess, I would say neighborhoods losing these 500 officers. Here's an idea, why not hire 500 ADDITIONAL officers?

Oh, that's right, the city can't afford it. Rahm could get rid of the patronage employees, but that would upset the machine. He couldn't do that after the machine handed him the election.

Why does re-organizing the police task force with increased police presence in high-crime neighborhoods register as a negative on your scale?

Given that the hiring of a 500 additional officers is out of the question, I would say that this is the next best thing. Isn't this the effective police management people have been asking for?

[prairiestate]

Again, the police will move into one neighborhood, and the gang members will move into the neighborhood they just left. They'll just keep switching back and forth. Who benefits from that? Perhaps Chicagoans should pressure Rahm to stand up to the machine, fire the patronage employees and use that money to hire more cops. Then everyone in the city will be safer, not just those in the neighborhood of the month that are getting an influx of temporary additional cops.

[ofcjim40]

This is all smoke and mirrors. With some of these neighborhoods it wouldn't matter if 2,000 cops were dropped in. If the majority of the neighborhood doesn't want positive change, then the change won't come. As long as "don't snitch" exists, the courts slap on the wrist, and the neighborhood sits by, nothing will change. The Police is not the military. We can't go into a neighborhood as an "occupying force" to clean up the mess. The badguys know this too. They and their scumbag lawyers will sue the Police for any petty thing costing all of us hard working people money. The media is anti-Police and the courts often are too. So basically the badguys terrorize a neighborhood, the Police come in to clean up, but god forbid one gun toting multiple felon gang banger gets a slap, then people cry the Cop should be Federally charged. So essentially the terrorists have to be treated with kid gloves, the courts do nothing to them, and then the neighborhood won't "snitch" on them. It's really not difficult to understand why some neighborhoods will NEVER have peace. But CPD is way too understaffed and just shuffling Officers around without hiring more won't do much. But hey...isn't crime down??? The City and the media couldn't possibly be lying could they?...

[j_cat]

The title of this thread made it look more promising. You know, as some bad areas finally start to gentrify, then where do the displaced people go?

But no, instead the OP asks a question that has already been answered by the many cities that have seen success with this method of targeted policing.

[Vlajos]

I agree j_cat, the thread sounded interesting until I actually read the post....

[Attrill]

Originally Posted by prairiestate

Again, the police will move into one neighborhood, and the gang members will move into the neighborhood they just left. They'll just keep switching back and forth.

It doesn't work that way. I've seen gangs driven out of Boston neighborhoods in the 70's and 80's and out of Chicago Neighborhoods in the 90's. Hell, I even saw it in visits to family in Shephard's Bush in London through the 80's and 90's. The same thing happens everywhere. What happens with gentrification is that the market for drugs in the neighborhood significantly declines and people who are willing to call the cops move in. The cops don't have to patrol as much because the residents are serving as the patrols. The cops that are being moved are being taken out of areas that have gentrified and being moved to patrol other areas.

10-15 years ago my block in Logan Square was really sketchy - a few houses with dealing going on, lookouts on the corner, gunfire at least a few times a month. A couple busts got rid of the trouble houses and things started to get better, but there was still some dealing in the alley (revolving around a club) and the gang presence that came with it. That was driven out by a total of 3 houses where people would call the cops if something was suspicious. It became too much of a hassle for both buyers and dealers to be in the neighborhood. It would be VERY difficult (if not impossible) for someone to move back in here and set up shop again.

Another important thing to remember is that this is the first time cops have been reassigned since the cameras have been put into widespread use, this is change is overdue. It was fought by a lot of cops who don't want to be moved from Lakeview to Englewood. I don't blame them, but they've got to go where the serious crime is.

[roma2585]

Originally Posted by OhAcid

Why does re-organizing the police task force with increased police presence in high-crime neighborhoods register as a negative on your scale?

Given that the hiring of a 500 additional officers is out of the question, I would say that this is the next best thing. Isn't this the effective police management people have been asking for?

There won't be any increased presence in high crime neighborhoods. The specialized task forces were used to respond to high crime areas, but with a city-wide jurisdiction. So, they were already in high crime areas. You're basically moving police from high crime areas, and putting them in high crime areas.

The city is something like 2,000 police short every day. Yet, they are budgeted for a full amount. I'm waiting for a reporter somewhere to ask where the extra money is going, because it should be available to hire to replace the retiring officers.

[Aleking]

Obnoxious political ranting aside. A good chunk of the worst south/west side neighborhoods are simply done, the percentage of normal law abiding folks has dropped so low that they will never recover under traditional means, it's time to stop throwing good money after bad. The idea that more cops or anything else for that matter is going to change them around is naive at this point.

[Aleking]

Originally Posted by Attrill

It doesn't work that way. I've seen gangs driven out of Boston neighborhoods in the 70's and 80's and out of Chicago Neighborhoods in the 90's. Hell, I even saw it in visits to family in Shephard's Bush in London through the 80's and 90's. The same thing happens everywhere. What happens with gentrification is that the market for drugs in the neighborhood significantly declines and people who are willing to call the cops move in. The cops don't have to patrol as much because the residents are serving as the patrols. The cops that are being moved are being taken out of areas that have gentrified and being moved to patrol other areas.

10-15 years ago my block in Logan Square was really sketchy - a few houses with dealing going on, lookouts on the corner, gunfire at least a few times a month. A couple busts got rid of the trouble houses and things started to get better, but there was still some dealing in the alley (revolving around a club) and the gang presence that came with it. That was driven out by a total of 3 houses where people would call the cops if something was suspicious. It became too much of a hassle for both buyers and dealers to be in the neighborhood. It would be VERY difficult (if not impossible) for someone to move back in here and set up shop again.

Another important thing to remember is that this is the first time cops have been reassigned since the cameras have been put into widespread use, this is change is overdue. It was fought by a lot of cops who don't want to be moved from Lakeview to Englewood. I don't blame them, but they've got to go where the serious crime is.

Logan Sqaure or other marginal places like Pilsen, Rogers Park and Uptown are one thing, but you really can't compare them to the war zones on the south and west sides. The drivers for change simply aren't there and those places will never even partially gentrify unless some truley radical and probably controversial moves are made.