McCarthy: 'Disappointed' In Holiday Weekend Violence But Crimefighting Strategies 'Clearly Working'
By Chuck Sudo in News on Jul 8, 2013 9:50PM
Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy met the media Monday to address the rash of shootings that happened in the city during the extended Independence Day holiday and what he said by now must be part of some boilerplate response he has in cases where 74 people were wounded by gunfire over the course of four-and-a-half days.
Here’s what McCarthy had to say:
"This past week, we're disappointed where we had 11 less shooting incidents that resulted in the same number of murders as last year. We focus on reducing shooting incidents and the murder rate follows."
Speaking with reporters at the Police Department’s Seventh District headquarters, McCarthy added that his crimefighting strategy of saturating known high crime areas of the city with police is “clearly working” and “there’s still an unacceptable amount of violence in this city.”
McCarthy met the media to announce the launch of a pilot program with CPD and the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS) which would allow residents to anonymously share tips on crime in their communities via text message or Twitter. Residents can share tips with police by texting the number 274637 (CRIMES), and starting the message with the letters CPD. CAPS workers in the seventh (Englewood), 11th (Harrison) and 18th (River North) Districts will share information about crime, business and community alerts, beat meetings and missing persons cases with followers in an attempt to curb crime in those areas. Followers who live in those districts may also participate in CAPS meetings via Twitter if they can’t attend in person.
McCarthy said the idea was spurred by how the Boston Police Department used social media to reach out to residents during the Boston Marathon bombings. The chance to share information anonymously with police may be the necessary aspect of the program, since the “no snitch” culture is seen as a contributing factor to increased violence in communities where shootings are high. Let’s just say we’re cautiously optimistic, more so than the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., who said fighting violence in high crime areas required “more than talk” and suggested improving the infrastructure to the communities, in addition to the crimefighting strategies.
Here are the Twitter handles for the new pilot program: (@ChicagoCAPS07), 11th (@ChicagoCAPS11), and 18th (@ChicagoCAPS18)