The Little Village Gang Violence Reduction Project in Chicago

This statement puzzled the rest of the Project team. The local Project tactical officerswere particularly uncomfortable with this decision. The Coordinator raised the question of howthey could work together as a team if all the team members did not know who each member wasworking with. In the long term, it was essential to share information about particular youth if abasic objective of the Project was to be achieved. He suggested that information about particularyouth possessed by police and community youth workers would be useful to probation officersin their decision-making about services or violations. The probation supervisor was adamant inhis refusal. After the meeting, the Project Coordinator spoke to the CPD liaison, Lt. Chomiak,and then to the deputy director of CCADP. The Coordinator proposed a preliminary step aroundthe impasse: 1) the University of Chicago component of youth workers would continue to submitupdated lists of gang members and in return would expect to receive verification that particularyouth were currently probationers; 2) the youth workers would regard such verificationinformation as confidential, to be used strictly as an aid in their social intervention, control andopportunity-provision efforts. The information received would not be used or exchanged withany youth or agency persons outside of the Project team.The deputy director could not make a final decision. However, at a later meeting withthe Coordinator, the ICJIA executive director, and the police lieutenant, arranged by the Directorof the Cook County Adult Probation Department, the Director said she would not rigidly adhereto the general policy that information about probationers would not be shared without a courtorder. She indicated that the department had a “statutory” obligation to maintain a degree ofconfidentiality regarding “particular types of information.” She had no objection to suchinformation being shared with the Coordinator of the Project, and it would be at his discretion to4.8