The Little Village Gang Violence Reduction Project in Chicago

the CPD as the senior partner) in the Project relationship, but a concept of how the probationofficers were to relate to the Project police was not formulated. Apparently no policy-level oradministrative meetings were held between the two departments to address this issue. The upperlevel of CCDAP administration was in the dark as to what the Little Village probationcomponent of the Project specifically should do with the Project police, except carry out someform of regular probation in the area.CCDAP originally assigned the Little Village gang probation unit to an area larger thanthe Little Village community. The unit at first was to be decentralized, dealing with all adults onprobation from the area, whether they were gang youth or not. It was not until well into the firstyear of the Project that permission was granted for the Little Village probation unit toconcentrate on gang youth in the same beats as the Project police. However, focus continued tobe on gang probationers who were arrested for drug offenses. A complicating factor was that thesupervising probation officer in the Project knew little about the gang problem and was disposedto apply restrictive rules and operating procedures to the three probation officers. Thesupervising probation officer strictly followed CCDAP standard operating procedures.Influencing the development of the probation department’s participation (and specificallythe role of the probation officers in the Project) was that adult probation was also in the midst ofits own reorganization under the aegis of a newly-appointed chief probation officer. A deputyadministrative officer initially interested in and responsible for the development of the LittleVillage probation unit was also replaced. The lack of understanding of the nature of the Projectand the gang problem in Little Village by the probation supervisor, as well as growing tensionbetween him and his three probation officers who had more experience and better understanding6.10