The Little Village Gang Violence Reduction Project in Chicago

G.S.That’s part of the problem, you know. When you start talking to these potential police asteam members, you have to see their approach. You give them the question: “Okay,you’re a police officer, and you have a kid that’s caught, let’s say spray painting. Whatwould your decision be? Lock him up for thirty days or maybe have him remove thegraffiti, while his parents stand out there and watch. And make sure he goes back toschool and put him on some sort of close supervision or probation.” You have to seehow hard a line an officer takes. You can not just snap the line on these kids. You haveto give them some leeway, because otherwise it doesn’t work. I mean, if they don’t havethe discipline at home, it’s not going to change anything. We cannot be thedisciplinarians. I would not put an older police officer on a Project like this, because heusually doesn’t have the right mentality for gang kids: “Lock all these guys up. And letGod sort it out.” But that does not work!R.C.One of the bad things about this job is that we get attached to these kids and the families.We interact with the kids’ families. It makes it hard sometimes, especially if we knowthe family well. We’ve had to lock guys up for murder. We knew the kid and hisbackground. We knew what he was capable of doing, and we were hoping that it wouldnot come to putting him away – sometimes for thirty years.I.S.What about probation officers? What kind of officers should be on the Project?6.28