West Side residents took their public safety concerns directly to Chicago police Supt. Larry Snelling on Tuesday night.
At the second of four required public hearings of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, Snelling addressed community concerns over open case rates and youth violence prevention efforts.
“Of the homicides that we’ve had this year, which is 25, 19 of those have been cleared already,” Snelling said. “We continue to move in the direction of building the trust with the community so that we can get the information so we can solve those homicides.” (UPDATE: Snelling admitted Friday he misstated the number of murders that had been cleared this year. Click on this link for additional details.)
When asked why arrests haven’t been made in the shooting that killed 2 CPS high school students last week in the Loop in which suspects were able to flee from a busy area, Snelling said progress is being made.
“Police can’t be everywhere all the time,” Snelling said. “The failure would be if we didn’t follow up and work toward trying to solve that crime. I would never call my police officers failures because they weren’t there at that time. There are leads on that [case] right now. Our officers got the information right away and we’re working diligently to find the shooters of those individuals.”
“Proactive policing still has to be constitutional. What I don’t want my officers doing is going out there and over-policing in a way that is going to continue to destroy the relationships between our community members and the police,” he said.
Several residents at the meeting, held at the JLM Center, 2622 W. Jackson Ave., had concerns over what efforts were being made in the police department to help at-risk youth.
Snelling said the department encourages officers to get involved in mentorship programs, but they could use the community’s help to reach kids in need.
“When you see kids who need help, reach out and point them in our direction so we can help,” he said. “We need community members to stand next to us to reach these kids that are struggling.”
Snelling also addressed concerns over the effectiveness of the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system whose effectiveness has been called into question.
He said there have been over 150 cases in which officers responded to a ShotSpotter alert and lives were saved.
“Any technology that will help save lives, I am for,” Snelling said.
The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability will hold a public hearing to address all ShotSpotter questions and concerns Feb. 8.
