Police plan changes in wake of 9% jump in killings in first 4 months compared with 2007
By Angela Rozas | Tribune reporter
May 17, 2008

Murder in Chicago rose by almost 9 percent, while violent crime was up more than 6 percent in the first four months of 2008, compared with the same period last year, Police Supt. Jody Weis said Friday.

Weis blamed the uptick in violence on two triple murders and a quintuple homicide that happened in April.

"We do not have the luxury of second guessing why the trends fluctuate," said Weis, who indicated he's focused on the future and not the past. "We need to respond and deploy resources accordingly."

In April, there were 47 murders, compared with 34 the year before. A total of 134 homicides were tallied over the first four months of the year, compared with 123 in that same period in 2007. Shootings also rose, a fact Weis said was due in part to gang conflicts in two districts that resulted in 19 shootings on just one Friday night in April.
Weis said the department is trying to combat the violence by improving coordination between patrol officers and specialized units and focusing more on the city's hot spots to quell gang violence. He also said the department plans to conduct joint missions with specialized units and will deploy helicopters to patrol over hot spots as well as during safety sweeps at parks.

Some units have already been taking to the streets on weekends in battle dress, a visual deterrent to crime, Weis said.

But Weis also said he is transferring more than 90 Targeted Response Unit officers back to the "busiest districts," shrinking a unit that responds to hot spots and in the past has been credited with helping to reduce crime.

Michael Shields, deputy superintendent of the bureau of strategic deployment, said the Targeted Response Unit is being cut back because the unit's mission is changing. He said its focus is shifting from being a presence in the hot spots to targeting higher-level gang members and passing on intelligence to other units.

One member of the Targeted Response Unit said many officers in the unit are critical of the changes, saying it abandons its original mission of saturating high-crime neighborhoods and threatens its success.

Shields acknowledged that some officers might not like the change.

"Everybody kind of has an idea about how they think things should be," he said. "This change in their mission is something we're going to look at and try to determine if it's actually successful, and if it's not, we'll revamp it."