Crime Drops, but Community Policing Falls Short of Expectations

By: Alden K. LouryOn a cool Wednesday afternoon in late October, Chicago Police Officers Frank Fuda and Len Jarvis pulled up to Unity Fellowship Church, 1818 W. 74th St. Fuda greeted the Rev. Walter Harris with a firm handshake and a friendly smile. "I try and stop by to see the reverend once a week," said the 13-year police veteran. Fuda has spent his career in the 7th Police District, which includes the South Side communities of Englewood and West Englewood. "Besides, I like the guy."

The three men talked in the sanctuary for nearly 30 minutes. The conversation was relaxed and comfortable, as between old friends. They discussed residents’ fears of gang retaliation, and the officers asked Harris about a suspected drug house nearby.

The next three hours were anything but relaxed. With sirens blaring and lights flashing, Fuda and Jarvis rushed to the scene of a reported battery, where one woman claimed another had attacked her with pepper spray. Then the officers roared north on Damen Avenue, hoping to catch up with a car fleeing suburban police.

An hour later, they raced to the parking lot of a convenience store at 71st Street and Ashland Avenue, where Fuda questioned a young woman who said she had been threatened by a man with a gun. No gun was found.

Still, Jarvis called The Chicago Reporter’s Oct. 27 ride-along "a slow night" for the Englewood Police District, which stretches south from 55th to 75th streets, and west from the Dan Ryan Expressway to the Penn Central railroad tracks near Damen Avenue.

Officers on the evening shift sometimes have two or three calls waiting for them when they start work, said District Commander Maurice Ford. Despite the workload, they are expected to carry out the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy, the Chicago Police Department’s 6-year-old community policing effort.

The program, dubbed CAPS, has been severely tested in Englewood. The neighborhood is still reeling from the July 1998 murder of 11-year-old Ryan Harris and the charging of two boys, ages 7 and 8, with first-degree murder. These charges were eventually dropped. Residents also are frustrated by a series of unsolved murders and sexual assaults.

To assess community policing in Englewood, the Reporter analyzed police crime statistics, service call data and beat meeting logs from March 1998 to March of this year. The logs were obtained from the Police Department by the Chicago Alliance for Neighborhood Safety, a non-profit alliance of community groups. The Reporter also interviewed residents and observed several beat meetings.

Among the findings:

• While the district’s crime rate fell from 1990 to 1998, much of the decline occurred from 1990 to 1992—before community policing began, police data show. The crime rate rose 3.3 percent in the first three years of the program, from 1993 to 1995, then fell 5.1 percent from 1996 to 1998. Last year, Englewood ranked sixth among the city’s 25 police districts in total number of crimes.

• Englewood officers have very little "down time" to build the personal relationships community policing requires. In 1998, Englewood ranked fourth in the number of calls that resulted in police dispatches. Each Englewood officer handled 287 calls in 1998, compared with a citywide average of 157 calls per officer.

• Police officers and residents often do not make it through CAPS’ five-step problem-solving process. Residents identify problems at beat meetings—step one of the process—but in only 26 percent of the cases did they develop strategies with police to address these problems.

• Turnout at beat meetings is low, and residents say they rarely see the same officers and sergeants. Citywide, average attendance at beat meetings is about 26; Englewood meetings drew an average of 17 people in the 13 months analyzed. In only six of the district’s 15 beats did the same sergeants attend at least half the meetings.

Ford acknowledged his staff spend a lot of their time answering calls and need more training in problem-solving techniques, which he said they are receiving. "Sure, things could be a lot better, but you’re talking about an ideal situation and nothing is ideal. We have to work with what we have," Ford said. "It’s called improvise and adapt. That’s what we do."

But he insists that community policing has made residents feel safer—and more comfortable working with police.

The program played a significant role in the Ryan Harris investigation, he added. Residents gave beat and tactical officers tips that were relayed to detectives working the case. As a result, Ford said, police were able to identify and charge Floyd Durr, a 30-year-old convicted sex offender, with the crime. Ford said residents reported seeing Harris with Durr on July 27, 1998, the day she was last seen alive.

"Once upon a time these people would not have come forward and given information to police because of a certain alienation between the police and the citizens out here," he said. "We have almost completely erased that. … We never lost communication with the residents of Englewood—not at the district level."

That claim is rejected by former Illinois Appellate Court Justice R. Eugene Pincham, who represents the family of one of the boys originally charged in the murder. "The people in the community, they knew these kids did not do this and they took that position early on. But their voices went unheard," he said.

John Paul Jones, chairman of the Greater Englewood Community and Family Task Force, a community advocacy group, called CAPS "a great vehicle to bring people together," but added that it should connect more with young families, community leaders and organizations.

"We need strategy and we aren’t getting that right now," he said. "It’s a good beginning, but it needs to be broader now. Englewood needs to take the lead." Jones said rather than working through CAPS, his group has pushed for policy reforms, like requiring that police videotape confessions.

And citywide, police may be squandering valuable connections by not fully engaging in problem solving, said Warren Friedman, executive director of the Chicago Alliance for Neighborhood Safety. "We believe that while CAPS hasn’t failed yet, it is failing," he said at a Nov. 3 Chicago City Council meeting.

Still, Mayor Richard M. Daley "remains 100 percent committed to CAPS … and we do believe it works," said Rod Sierra, the mayor’s deputy press secretary.

And Superintendent of Police Terry G. Hillard hailed the district at a Sept. 28 luncheon hosted by the City Club of Chicago, a non-partisan civic group. When asked how he would restore public faith in policing in Englewood, he replied, "CAPS is working in Englewood. It’s one of our premiere districts."

Falling Crime
Daley launched community policing in Englewood and four other police districts in April 1993, and expanded the program citywide in late 1994. CAPS now represents the Chicago Police Department’s official crime-fighting philosophy.

The goal is to have officers work closely with citizens and city departments to identify neighborhood problems and develop strategies to solve them. This typically happens in meetings at neighborhood churches, schools or park field houses in each of the city’s 279 beats. Each beat has its regulars while others attend when problems arise. Beat officers and sergeants lead the meetings with the help of resident volunteers, called beat facilitators.

During city budget hearings last month, 3rd Ward Alderman Dorothy Tillman—whose ward includes part of Englewood—said community policing has not been as effective as it could be. The $9 million CAPS budget could be better used to hire more police officers, she said.

But Hillard told more than 1,000 residents at the Chicago Neighborhood Assembly on Oct. 23 that the program has made a direct hit on the city’s index crimes, which fell from 323,909 in 1991 to 253,608 in 1998—a 21.7 percent decline. Index crimes are murder, criminal sexual assault, aggravated assault, robbery, theft, burglary, motor vehicle theft and arson.

However, the city’s most significant single-year drop in crime—about 7 percent—came in 1992, the year before the community policing pilot effort began, the Reporter found. The largest one-year decline since was 4 percent in both 1993 and 1995. In all, crime dropped in 22 districts and rose in three others.

And index crime is down around the nation, said Darrell Steffensmeier, a professor of sociology at Penn State University and a specialist on crime trends. Steffensmeier and other experts say they believe factors other than community policing are more responsible, including the strong economy and increasing awareness of safety issues.

In the Englewood District, crime fell 13 percent in 1992, the year before community policing, but rose between 1993 and 1995. Overall, Englewood’s 3.7 percent decline under CAPS ranks 15th among the city’s 25 police districts.

Police there are busy, the Reporter found. There were 110,785 calls resulting in police dispatches in 1998, the fourth highest in the city, according to Deputy Director of News Affairs Patrick Camden.

About 386 officers work in the district, and only one other district has more, Ford said. Even with that manpower, each Englewood officer handled an average of 287 calls in 1998. Citywide, there were 2.12 million calls dispatched and about 13,500 officers—an average of 157 calls per officer. Camden said not all officers answer calls, but could not provide a breakdown.

Still, community policing has not suffered from the high call volume, Ford said. "By responding to as many calls as they are, that just means that they’re interacting with a lot more people," he said.

Officer Jarvis said most community policing is not as relaxed as the Oct. 27 meeting with Rev. Harris. "You kind of have to get it on the run," he said.

Jarvis, who is still in training, said fellow rookies in other districts marvel at his workload. He might take 15 calls in one night while those in other districts take only one or two. "You’ve got call, after call, after call," he said.

Pressure Cooker
Many officers and sergeants transfer to areas with lighter workloads as soon as they can, Ford added. "Just at a time when people get to start knowing a particular sergeant, he’s transferred out … this is a pressure cooker."

Sergeants are key to community policing because only they can demand that their officers follow through on strategies developed with residents, said Wesley G. Skogan, a political science professor at Northwestern University. He is leading an evaluation of CAPS through the Chicago Community Policing Evaluation Consortium.

An average of 31 different officers attended meetings in each of Englewood’s 15 beats, according to the Reporter’s analysis of meeting logs from March 1998 to March of this year. Of the 273 officers who attended the 140 beat meetings, 79 showed up only once.

Every beat worked with at least three different sergeants, and some beats had as many as six or seven sergeants during the span.

"Now, nothing’s being solved because every time you come back you have new sergeants, new policemen. Everybody [has] changed," said Pearl Black, 51, who has been active in Beat 733 since community policing began. Residents often have to repeat their concerns and complaints to new officers, and it takes time to build trust, she said.

Dawn Cherie Jasper, a beat facilitator for Beat 723, said familiarity with officers is a must. "You sit in the meetings and [the police] ask, ‘Can you tell us who?’" But, she added, residents are thinking, "‘Do I look like a fool to you? As far as I know you may be on the same side with them.’"

Some new officers come to Englewood believing residents have little intelligence, are criminals or just don’t care, Jasper said.

"I’ve told police officers that the people who come to these meetings are not the people you’ve heard about. These are people who care. They are risking their families and their homes coming here," she said.

Fuda said residents can be reluctant to talk, particularly in groups. He recalled an incident when family members saw a relative wounded in a shooting but refused to tell him who fired the shots.

Some residents hesitate because even "the bad guys" attend the beat meetings, said the Rev. Harris, who sometimes hosts meetings at his church. "I’ve seen them in here. They’ll come and sit in the back. They won’t say anything but they want folks to know that they’re here," he said.

Ron Mitchell, a homeowner in the 5700 block of South Morgan Street, said he was threatened by a man for calling police about suspected drug dealing near his home. "‘We know you’re calling, Ron,’" Mitchell said the man told him. "‘It could cause you some problems.’"

But Mitchell, 39, a youth program coordinator, said he and his neighbors have invested too much in their homes to be intimidated. "We’re not going to run. We tell them ‘you’re not going to sell drugs on this block. We’ve got to live here.’"

Passionate Debate
At the Oct. 21 meeting in Beat 715, about 20 residents passionately debated the underlying causes of gangs and drugs, the two problems most often identified in meeting logs.

But the group did not tackle specific problems until about five minutes before the end of the meeting. The scene resembled most of the eight beat meetings the Reporter observed: plenty of energy and dialogue about problems but little talk on specific solutions.

Identifying problems is only the first of five steps in problem solving, according to CAPS guidelines. Step two uses a "crime triangle" to look at crime from three sides: the offender, the victim and the location. In step three, police and residents develop strategies and assign responsibilities. Then they carry out those strategies and finally, evaluate their progress, usually at the next meeting.

Police Sgt. Saadia Griffin took a handful of Beat 714 residents through the process at a Nov. 17 meeting, frequently pausing to refer to a flip chart.

Residents used the crime triangle to describe a group of young black men who were dealing drugs in the 5900 block of South Hermitage Avenue. Their buyers were white, Latino and black. Victims, residents said, were neighbors and members of a nearby school and church.

They described where the dealers stood on the block, where drugs might be hidden, how dealers directed buyers down the block, and the hand gestures the dealers used when police were coming.

As for strategies, Griffin said she would relay the information to officers specializing in drug crimes. And although some residents were reluctant, they agreed to call police with more detailed information.

Working together doesn’t happen enough, said Ford, who has ordered more training for police supervisors and beat officers beginning in January. He added that residents also need to take a more active role in the process. Next year, trainers will attend beat meetings to make sure officers and residents use problem-solving techniques correctly, he said.

"I don’t want police officers to sit there and come up with a strategy," he said. "I want the community to say ‘this is what we’re doing’ and then we say ‘this is what we’re doing,’ and together we can work on the problem."

Problem solving often stalls after the first step, and not just in Englewood, Skogan said. Citywide, most sessions end up as "911 meetings," where residents only report crimes. "The police talk about what they do or can do and residents will sit there and take it all in," he said. In 1998, only about a third of the 459 beat meetings studied by the Consortium followed the problem solving model, Skogan said.

Police Department rules call for officers to identify a community liaison at beat meetings who can provide updates on what residents are doing to tackle problems. But a liaison was specified in only a fourth of the 299 problems identified at the meetings, beat logs show. "The problem solving focus has been short-circuited," Skogan said. "It’s a shadow of what it could be."

War Zone
Jamesetta Harris, a secretary who moved to Englewood in December 1992, said her block "was like a war zone. They were shooting 24 hours a day. It was like cowboys and Indians." For months her family refused to move into the two-flat she bought in the 5500 block of South Marshfield Avenue, Harris said.

Now, Harris (no relation to Ryan Harris) said children play freely on the block and police crack down on public drinking, loitering and loud music. Best of all, she said, community policing has changed the way police and residents view one another.

"We had to sit down to discuss the problems," said Harris, chairwoman of the 7th District Advisory Committee, a citizens group that meets monthly with Ford and community members. "They need us and we need them."

But there is still a long way to go, said organizer John Paul Jones. Ties between community organizations and police have faded since the early days of the program. "[Those are] the untapped resources that we believe CAPS is missing out on," he said.

The city contracts with nine community groups to help inform residents about program events and encourage participation, said CAPS Project Manager Ted O’Keefe, who heads the program’s community outreach.

Crime Stoppers, a 20-year-old non-profit resident patrol program at 1008 W. 69th St., is the only Englewood group with a CAPS contract. Founder and director Carrie Birk said the program received $9,500 this year. "I am CAPS," exclaimed Birk. "I’m a crime-fighter … I think the police are doing an excellent job."

Police need deeper partnerships with such groups, said Robert Friedmann, chairman of Georgia State University’s Department of Criminal Justice. Friedmann helped develop community policing in Atlanta and other Georgia communities.

"The focus is to minimize crime production, focus on crime-causing conditions. … You do that by developing partnerships with criminal justice agencies, social service agencies," Friedmann said.

Boston recently went two years without a juvenile homicide, in part because police and community leaders banded together to respond to children’s needs, he said. Probation officers knocked on doors to check on children, organizations offered job training, and church groups and schools lent support.

Chicago’s program hasn’t wiped away the underlying causes of crime, the reasons people sell drugs or become prostitutes, said Peter K.B. St. Jean, a doctoral student at the University of Chicago’s Department of Sociology, who worked for Skogan. "We have not gotten there and we might not get there for some time because we’re still trying to find out if police and community can work together."

St. Jean also suggests CAPS organizers need stronger bonds with local elected officials. In the Englewood District, which is split among seven wards, aldermen have given the program mixed reviews.

"We’ve been able to close down drug houses here in the 17th Ward, clean up vacant lots, take some of these kids off the street and expose them to other things," said 17th Ward Alderman Terry Peterson, himself a former beat facilitator.

But 16th Ward Alderman Shirley Coleman questions the program’s effectiveness. She said many residents complain that they repeatedly go over the same drug-related problems at beat meetings. She would like to see more racial sensitivity training for police and wants residents to get more involved. And "if they don’t get results, [that’s] where I try to step in and talk with the superintendent."

Despite any shortcomings in Englewood, many police officers and residents appear ready to fight for the neighborhood.

"Like I said before, [CAPS] is working. But what we’re trying to do now is fine tune it and get it a lot better than it is. We’re not at a utopia yet but we’re going to get there eventually," said Ford. "We’re going to turn it around."

Longtime resident Jasper still remembers Englewood as a good place to buy a home and raise a family. And she believes it will be again.

"My community is the best community and I’m going to keep saying that and keep believing it," Jasper said. "I tell my friends ‘if you want to buy, you better buy now before the prices go up.’ "

Englewood, she said, is a "diamond in the rough."

For more information, visit the following sites:

w A map of Chicago police districts

w The Chicago Police Department's CAPS Web site

w A list of beat meetings by police district

w Racial makeup of police districts

w The latest evaluations of CAPS from the Chicago Community Policing Evaluation Consortium

w Story about community policing in Boston

Contributing: Alysia Tate, James Boozer and Billy O’Keefe. Interns Rebecca Anderson, Sylvia Barragán, Mick Dumke and Heather Gawronski helped research this story.