Community policing is a philosophy that emphasizes collaboration between police and the community to build trust and solve problems. The Chicago Police Department's (CPD) consent decree mandates that every CPD member – sworn officers and civilians – be responsible for making community policing a core component of its programs, training, resource deployment, and accountability systems.

In September 2023, the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance creating the Treatment Not Trauma Working Group of internal stakeholders. The ordinance required a report with recommendations for expanding non-police alternate crisis response programs and clinical services while increasing community awareness of both.

Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities (PSPC) is a coalition of funders who have been successful in building an evidence base for gun violence reduction strategies, namely Community Violence Intervention (CVI). Over the past four years, the field of CVI has expanded due to government investment and has recently become a focus of the Public Safety Task Force of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Violence in Chicago is a complex issue that is a symptom of underlying challenges of systemic racism, poverty, and social disinvestment. Shootings and homicides recorded in Chicago fell by 13% in 2023 as violence rates returned to pre-pandemic levels, but the number of people killed last year was still among the city’s highest over the past two decades. Communities also continue to suffer harm that extends beyond violence and disparately affects Chicago’s West and South Side neighborhoods.

Chicago’s Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement (CARE) program responds to 911 calls involving individuals experiencing a mental health or substance use-related crisis. The City has continued to scale up operations since the first on-the-ground team was launched in September 2021. Early in his tenure, Mayor Brandon Johnson committed to expanding the CARE program for two reasons: alternate response directly supports his “Treatment Not Trauma” policy priority, and the work is an element of his “People’s Plan for Community Safety.”

The field of alternate response has matured significantly over the past few years, particularly within the context of a nationwide push to reimagine public safety. A recent report found that the majority of Chicago’s 911 calls are related to non-urgent matters like car accidents, mental or physical health issues, or noise complaints.

It is imperative that CPD accomplish the changes the Consent Decree requires while maintaining the day-to-day operations that ensure public safety. Both priorities require careful planning of workforce allocation for how officers are deployed.

Since Mayor Harold Washington asked the business community for pro bono help analyzing the City budget, we have proudly served the Mayor’s Office to advance its most important and timely initiatives. Beginning with supporting the mayoral transition in 2019, we have worked closely with Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Office to advance initiatives aligned with our mission and to support projects where Civic Consulting Alliance was uniquely positioned to make an impact.

Gun violence continues to be a public health crisis throughout America, and a top priority for many Chicagoans who are pressing local governments to do more to increase public safety. To meet this challenge, Civic Consulting Alliance is supporting multiple interconnected clients to ensure quick and effective scaling of these concerted violence reduction efforts.

In January 2021, the Illinois legislature passed the Pretrial Fairness Act (“PFA”). This historic legislation restores the presumption of innocence and makes Illinois safer by ending money bond and the unconstitutional practice of jailing people pretrial simply because they cannot afford to buy their freedom.