New Report

Operationalizing Community Policing at the Chicago Police Department

What is community policing? Community policing is a proven approach to policing that prioritizes building relationships of trust and collaboration between officers and the communities they serve so that, working together, they can create safer communities.

Over two years, our team developed a report of recommendations in collaboration with community organizations, local leaders, and national law enforcement experts.

The Chicago Police Department asked Civic Consulting Alliance to conduct an assessment and develop recommendations to advance community policing throughout the department.

Download the Report

Executive Summary
Full Assessment

The Challenge

The Chicago Police Department (CPD) has long been committed to “community policing” and was considered a national leader in the 1990s with the launch of the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy, often referred to by its acronym, “CAPS”. However, fidelity to the original model has diminished over time, with community policing increasingly seen as separate from effective policing. This is further complicated by:

  • Lack of clear definition: For some, it is playing basketball and smiling at babies; for others, it is crime-focused, proactive policing. Conflicting CPD policies and trainings muddy understanding, meaning that officers do not know how to implement community policing in their day-to-day work.

  • Siloed implementation: Discrete programs, units and individuals – like CAPS and the Chicago Neighborhood Policing Initiative (“CNPI”) – are responsible for community policing which deepens the perception within CPD that building and maintaining community trust is not a part of everyone’s job.

  • Trust-building viewed as a function of community policing programs and staff: Placing the responsibility for building and maintaining community trust on a few specific CPD programs and individuals exacerbates long-standing trust issues – issues shaped by a local history that has disproportionately impacted Black and Brown communities and been intensified by national debates about policing.

To address these challenges, CPD must reframe community policing not as targeted initiatives or discrete engagements by select CPD members but as a department-wide approach to policing that makes building trust and working collaboratively with community a core part of every officer’s daily work.

The Opportunity

Advancing community policing strengthens the public safety ecosystem.

To address these challenges, CPD must reframe community policing not as targeted initiatives or discrete engagements by select CPD members but as a department-wide approach to policing that makes building trust and working collaboratively with the community a core part of every officer’s daily work.

Community policing is critical for CPD:

  • Advances Superintendent Larry Snelling’s vision for organizational excellence at CPD

  • Central to constitutional and accountable policing and requirements of the 2019 Consent Decree

This work supports and complements other community safety efforts of current and past CCA clients:

  • Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability

  • Mayor’s People’s Plan for Community Safety

  • Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago’s Public Safety Task Force

  • Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities

Our Partnership with CPD

Civic Consulting Alliance has a history of working with CPD to support initiatives that meet the spirit and requirements of the 2019 Consent Decree and share a goal of constitutional and accountable policing.

Milestones in Advancing Community Policing

  • May 2024
    At the request of and in partnership with the Chicago Police Department, Civic Consulting Alliance was asked to assess current community policing operations at CPD and propose a path to operationalize community policing department-wide.

    CCA set up an overarching project management structure and a research and engagement approach that prioritized significant input from community organizations and individuals, local leaders, national law enforcement experts, and CPD members.

  • Spring 2024 - Winter 2025
    The CCA team reviewed all CPD policies, trainings, and documentation related to current community policing practices in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of current community policing operations at the department.

    Additionally, the team conducted extensive research on impartial and community policing, procedural justice, and constitutional policing to ensure that recommendations were informed by research, evaluation, and external expertise.

    Report released March 2026:

  • Spring 2024 – Summer 2025
    Our team coordinated a community input process so that residents across Chicago could add their voices to the future of community policing at CPD.

    Community feedback was gathered  by 8 community-based organizations: Brave Space Alliance, Bright Star Community Outreach, BUILD, Inc, Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community, El Valor, The Resurrection Project, Target Area Development Coalition, YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago, with support from the Center for Conflict Resolution and The Intersect.

    Representatives from advisory and oversight bodies provided insight: Beat Facilitators, Members of the Coalition for the Consent Decree, Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability Commissioners, Community Policing Advisory Panel members, District Advisory Council Chairs, District Councilors, and Justice 20/20 Community Safety Working Group members.

    Phase 1 reports released April 2025:

    Phase 2 reports released March 2026:

  • Spring 2024 – Summer 2025
    Our team conducted interviews and focus groups to gather perspectives on community policing from CPD members representing all Bureaus and various ranks, tenures, geographies, and roles. We also deployed a survey of specialized community policing members to understand their current roles and responsibilities. 

    Weekly meetings were held with a team of CPD members representing the Office of Community Policing, the Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform and the Bureau of Patrol to refine understanding. 

    Report released April 2025:

    Survey released March 2026:

  • Fall 2024 - Winter 2025
    21st Century Policing Solutions, national experts in constitutional policing, researched leading practices in operationalizing community policing across 17 metropolitan areas including comparably-sized cities like Los Angeles and New York.

    Report released April 2025:

  • Spring 2025 - Winter 2026

    Over the course of a year, CCA reviewed and synthesized internal research and external feedback to complete the assessment of strengths and opportunities within the department's existing community policing portfolio and develop nine recommendations for how CPD can operationalize community policing department-wide.

    Recommendations released March 2026:

  • Once CPD reviews the assessment and recommendations, CCA intends to support implementation according to priorities identified by the department. 

Stakeholder
Engagement Highlights

2 Years

Weekly working sessions with a team of several CPD members, representing the Office of Community Policing, the Bureau of Patrol, the Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform, and the Office of Equity and Engagement.

1100+

Community members engaged via 45 sessions

150

CPD members interviewed

300+

Specialized community policing members surveyed

120

Advisory and oversight
representatives engaged

“Building community trust is more than just an objective, it is at the core of the Chicago Police Department's efforts to bolster safety throughout our city. Policing and community must be intertwined to achieve true safety in partnership with the residents we serve.”

Superintendent Larry Snelling, Chicago Police Department

Download the Report

Executive Summary
Full Assessment

Other Civic Consulting Alliance Projects Connected to Community Policing