As I told you last week, the staid and conservative Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago’s latest and more liberal ideas on taxes and crime reduction have caused some folks to sit up and take notice, including Illinois Senate President Don Harmon.
“I think that the Civic Committee is approaching major problems with a very different perspective,” Harmon said.
Harmon suggested the business group’s recently hired president, Derek Douglas, as a possible reason for the change. Douglas is an African American who worked for the Obama administration as special assistant to the president for urban affairs and then at the University of Chicago as vice president for civic engagement and external affairs.
Harmon also seemed impressed with how the Civic Committee was willing to put itself in the firing line, particularly on the crime issue and its insistence that Chicago must institute police reforms.
Crain’s Chicago Business and others have whacked the influential group’s crime plan, which relies primarily on violence prevention, targeted investment and hiring, because it didn’t specifically call for hiring more police officers. The group wants to reduce Chicago’s homicide numbers below 400 a year within five years. Last year, 695 homicide victims were tallied by the Chicago Police Department.
A recent Crain’s editorial ended by saying if the Civic Committee “is going to issue a business-minded prescription on issues of law enforcement and reform — and if it is to truly reflect the sentiments not only of downtown businesspeople but their counterparts in neighborhoods hit hardest by violence — then it should also call for a fully staffed police force.”
The Civic Committee’s most prominent member supporting its crime-reduction plan is billionaire James Crown, and he told me he didn’t see the editorializing as “hostility.”
Instead, Crown said, it’s “something we have seen along the way, which is people have got in their heads that ‘this is the problem’ or ‘this is what we need.’ And it’s usually a very short phrase or answer. ‘The problem is guns.’ ‘The problem is jobs.’ ‘The problem is the schools.’
“The frustration we have had in those conversations is they’re right, but it’s not the whole answer. It requires many elements, many factors, some of which are immediate, some of which will take years before we have really addressed this problem satisfactorily.”
As far as the specific criticism about additional police hiring, Crown said, “There are people who will look at the understaffing of the police department relative to open positions or history and say that is a problem. And it might well be, and we’re very supportive of the police department and want effective policing, and we may well join in the observation that Crain’s has been promoting. But there also is evidence that police departments with many fewer officers per 100,000 residents are very successful. Why?”
Good question.
The Civic Committee’s president was also asked about Crain’s editorial and related attacks on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight program: “We were a little disappointed to see that, because the suggestion was as if we were against adding police or increasing police, which we never said.
“What we said was the approach we want to take is to sit down with the leadership of CPD, sit down with the city, understand what is their strategy, what are their needs, how much do they want to grow and get behind that.
“So as opposed to us dictating, ‘You need to do X, Y and Z,’ it was more of a collaborative approach to hear from the police themselves, ‘Here’s what we’d like to have, we’d like to add more of this, we’d like to add more of that,’ and then have the business community find ways to support it. So, it’s just about the way you come at the issue.”
Even with the somewhat conciliatory approach, it’s clear things have changed.
Harmon is right. The Civic Committee has evolved from a standard businessperson group issuing standard businessperson demands that echoed standard pro-business publications, editorial pages and pundits, to taking a much more nuanced, holistic approach to actually solving very difficult, perhaps intractable problems.
Douglas, I think, said it best when he talked about a “collaborative approach” that focused on listening. There are way too many unilateral screamers on the crime issue in particular, and far too few people who want to take the time to listen, learn and collaboratively find a path forward.
While I don’t know how long this approach will last (the Civic Committee’s membership being what it is), I wish them luck.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 9:15 am:
Headline typo fixed. I’m really on a roll this morning.
- Homebody - Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 9:44 am:
== But there also is evidence that police departments with many fewer officers per 100,000 residents are very successful. Why? ==
This is the question that the ‘hire more cops’ folks never seem to have any interest in ever answering. Police don’t prevent crime. If the goal is to prevent crime instead of prosecuting criminals, you need to examine the why.
- DuPage Saint - Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 9:50 am:
You would think business type people would want to do more with less. All I know is what I read but I think way better management and use of manpower is what should be looked at. Also again from what I read it should be mayors job and aldermen should have no say in promotion or assignments
- Grandson of Man - Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 9:52 am:
Great article. Hopefully this succeeds in reducing violent crime and saving lives, which will take a deep commitment.
“The problem is jobs. The problem is the schools.”
A person working at a job or in school at any given time is not a perp or victim at that time.
- Larry Bowa Jr. - Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 10:01 am:
“But there also is evidence that police departments with many fewer officers per 100,000 residents are very successful.”
Funny how coy we have to be when discussing whether all these 6 figure public servants are actually doing their jobs. We’re only 3 years into CPD’s tantrum/work action at this point.
- Norseman - Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 10:07 am:
Keeping fingers crossed that this spirit of cooperation is long-lasting and serious.
- Back to the Future - Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 10:08 am:
Hat tip to the Times for including this thought provoking column in my Sunday paper.
As to the blog post, I was very excited to see the Civic Commitee providing support for new ideas. Also thinking we need more objective and thoughtful members of the GA to follow Senate President Don Harmon’s collaborative approach to addressing the crime issues.
- Regular democrat - Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 10:18 am:
This perspective is long overdue and probably will have a modicum of success over the long haul. Please keep in mind that 400000 calls for service in the city for high priority calls went unanswered in 2021 alone. The citizens deserve police to show up when called . Imagine if the fire dept didnt show up? There is an obvious need for more officers to answer the needs of the citizens
- Cool Papa Bell - Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 10:37 am:
=There is an obvious need for more officers to answer the needs of the citizens=
Get every cop a car and send them onto the street. Let police departments hire qualified non-uniform office staff to handle many jobs and duties inside of police stations. That’s good first step to getting more police on the streets.
- Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 10:53 am:
The Chicago police force is down 1,500 officers to the point where there were no patrol cars to respond to the shooting at Lincoln Park Zoo and crime is up significantly in Chicago, but we are supposed to believe the police don’t deter crime?
- levivotedforjudy - Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 11:09 am:
Great initiative. It isn’t either/or, it’s all the above. More and better police, police reform, job/career training, affordable housing, better parenting, violence interrupters, etc. The leadership of CCCCC is from different generation (and perspectives) that is coming of age after looking at what hasn’t worked. It’s time to try a different approach.
- Cool Papa Bell - Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 11:28 am:
=but we are supposed to believe the police don’t deter crime?=
London, UK has 33.3 cops per 10K residents.
Chicago, IL has 43.9 cops per 10k residents.
London had 109 homicides in 2022
Chicago had 697 homicides in 2022
London’s population is 8.98 million
Chicago’s population is 2.69 million
Do police deter crime?
- Boone's is Back - Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 11:40 am:
Cool Papa Bell, guns are illegal in the UK. I think that might have a little something to do with your stat.
- Pundent - Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 11:48 am:
=but we are supposed to believe the police don’t deter crime?=
Yes, because there’s simply no correlation between the number of police on a force and the amount of crime taking place.
- Cool Papa Bell - Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 12:04 pm:
=guns are illegal in the UK=
Yep. So lots of things deter crime.
It’s just not having more police, but they do need to be on the street and not just desk jobs.
- Dotnonymous x - Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 12:19 pm:
Where’s O.W.?
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 12:22 pm:
===Where’s O.W.? ===
He’s kinda busy today. He’ll be back later.
- Dotnonymous XL - Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 1:31 pm:
Thanks, Rich.
- Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 1:59 pm:
So pre Covid when there were 1,500 more officers, the city was much safer and people didn’t worry too much about getting assaulted on the CTA or getting car jacked.
Now the fact someone can fire off 60 rounds in River North in broad daylight with little chance of being caught has no correlation the police staffing levels?
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 2:08 pm:
===So pre Covid when===
Chicago’s 762 homicides in 2016 is highest in 19 years https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/01/us/chicago-murders-2016/index.html
- Demoralized - Tuesday, Jun 20, 23 @ 3:31 pm:
@LP
Your blathering is the kind of thing they are pushing back on which is that it’s likely not any one thing that is going to solve the problem. But you do what you normally do.