City officials joined law enforcement, prosecutorial partners and business and community leaders to announce a new comprehensive plan to further protect Chicago’s commercial corridors, neighborhood businesses and communities. Building on the all-hands-on-deck neighborhood protection plan that was launched on Monday morning, the City’s latest strategies are designed to prevent future looting attempts through stronger community partnerships, rapid response deployments, enhanced use of technology, robust legal actions and an integrated approach to geographic lockdowns.
To strengthen the City’s rapid and agile response to looting incidents, the Department will deploy officers from the impacted District, the Critical Incident Response Team, and the Community Safety team to the affected location. Additionally, City resources – including Streets and Sanitation vehicles – will be mobilized to assist CPD in maintaining control of the area through tactics such as traffic control. These resource deployments will ensure CPD has adequate coverage to protect businesses.
As part of new efforts to leverage neighborhood leadership, CPD’s Community Policing team is partnering with local community, faith-based and business leaders to conduct weekly operation meetings to improve public-private coordination and further prepare for potential incidents.
This latest coordination effort will fully integrate the business community in the Office of Emergency Management and Communications’ (OEMC) Summer Operations Center. Additionally, the City continues to deploy more than 100 infrastructure assets from the Department of Transportation (CDOT), the Department of Streets and Sanitation (DSS) and the Department of Water Management (DWM), who are working in concert with the Chicago Police Department to protect local commercial corridors.
Reinforcing the Department’s commitment to transparency and accountability at every level, the City is ensuring that all patrol officers and citywide teams in the field, including the Community Safety Team, the Critical Incident Response Team and Summer Mobile, are equipped with body-worn cameras (BWC) starting this weekend. Additionally, starting this weekend, the City has negotiated with its vendor to receive more than 500 additional BWCs to ensure that every CPD officer is equipped at all times.
Furthermore, as part of enhanced efforts to utilize technology, the Department will focus around-the-clock on open-source social media activity that could indicate plans for looting. This will include ongoing key term searches as well as review of relevant pages or accounts that have been used to organize such activity previously.
In partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department has formed a special Task Force of Detectives to specifically manage looting cases to ensure that those who loot are held accountable. This Task Force is already reviewing video camera footage and other evidence to identify perpetrators and develop strong cases against them.
The City is also strengthening partnerships with the Cook County Sheriff, Illinois State Police, and Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office (CCSAO). The Task Force on looting will work in close partnership with the CCSAO to ensure that individuals are held accountable for their actions. The City is also considering new laws and regulations that would provide CPD greater flexibility in prosecuting cases.
The Illinois State Police will also assist in securing areas impacted by looting by restricting access to affected areas of the city. The City is also partnering with the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, who will deploy into neighborhoods and supplement CPD manpower. In addition to law enforcement partners, the City is utilizing its departments and agencies to deploy new and enhanced ways to shut down geographies – including parts of the downtown core – in the event of another looting incident. These tactics include blocking and disabling vehicles as well as creating new hardened cityscapes.
Over the weekend, OEMC will continue to ensure residents have the latest information on any restricted access to the downtown area. To receive emergency alerts for updates on street closures and public transportation, subscribe to Chicago’s text or email alert system at NotifyChicago.org or follow OEMC on Facebook and Twitter.
Source: Reilly Reports 8/14/2020
