The Little Village Gang Violence Reduction Project in Chicago

component. The expectation was that leadership and coordination of the Project would comefrom the police department. Funding for the Project would come from the Bureau of JusticeAssistance, U.S. Justice Department’s Federal Violence in Urban Areas Program, administeredby the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA), then directly to the ChicagoPolice Department (CPD), which would subcontract with the Cook County Adult ProbationDepartment (CCAPD), the Department of Human Services (DHS), and The University ofChicago (UC).From the start, an assumption was that the Gang Violence Reduction Project (specificallytargeted to the gang problem), if successful, could be integrated into the community-policinginitiative being planned by the City. Community policing did not get off the ground in District10, one of the original five test sites, until approximately six months after the start of the GangViolence Reduction Project. Community policing was to prove to be a more complex anddifficult undertaking than the CPD originally expected. It took up the bulk of the CPD’sResearch and Development division’s energies, and consequently limited CPD’s interest in,guidance, and administration of the Project, particularly after community policing went citywideabout a year after the Little Village Project was undertaken. The Little Village Project was asmall addition or peripheral project that the CPD did not pay much attention to.Modifying the PlanThe components of the Little Village Gang Violence Reduction Project were modifiedalmost before the Project began. The CPD Gang Crime Unit was reorganized and downsized,and its function confined to intelligence. The Gang Crime Unit’s enforcement duties were2.12