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The Little Village Gang Violence Reduction Project in Chicago

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local and citywide groups and organizations (particularly <strong>in</strong> violent and high gang-crime areas ofthe city) under the auspices of the Mayor’s office, with the <strong>Chicago</strong> Police Department as thelead agency. More time and resources should have been allocated to support services for targetgang youth and coord<strong>in</strong>ation efforts among local agencies.Another key factor contribut<strong>in</strong>g to the lack of full development and implementation ofthe GVRP model was the failure by the <strong>Project</strong> Coord<strong>in</strong>ator and the <strong>Chicago</strong> Police Departmentto stimulate the creation of an <strong>in</strong>teragency set of adm<strong>in</strong>istrators as an <strong>in</strong>tegral component of asteer<strong>in</strong>g committee for the <strong>Project</strong>, particularly agencies provid<strong>in</strong>g staff to the <strong>Project</strong>. <strong>The</strong><strong>Project</strong> Coord<strong>in</strong>ator was too <strong>in</strong>volved <strong>in</strong> the day-to-day development and oversight of the GVRP,and should have more strongly <strong>in</strong>sisted from the start that the CPD and the CCAPD meet itsleadership and adm<strong>in</strong>istrative responsibilities for support<strong>in</strong>g the <strong>Project</strong>. Efforts should havebeen made by the CPD to <strong>in</strong>tegrate community polic<strong>in</strong>g with the GVRP, <strong>in</strong>volv<strong>in</strong>g the area andDistrict Commanders, as well as other police units such as the youth and narcotics divisions. Acommunity-based and <strong>in</strong>teragency project cannot be created without considerable commitmentand <strong>in</strong>volvement, not only of top community political leaders, but also of mid-level leadership.High-level policy discussions should have been undertaken with city government andpolitical leaders, particularly with the Mayor, before the <strong>Project</strong> began; discussions which fully<strong>in</strong>volved the Mayor throughout its development. A strategic political error may have been theassumption by the academic, the leader of a state plann<strong>in</strong>g agency, and the head of a researchand development of a major city crim<strong>in</strong>al justice agency, that the achievement of <strong>Project</strong> goalsand objectives (and even the availability of fund<strong>in</strong>g) was sufficient to susta<strong>in</strong> a gang program.<strong>The</strong> fact is that the <strong>Project</strong> and its positive achievements did not make sense <strong>in</strong> political and17.17

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