CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Following a Juneteenth weekend in which at least 11 people were killed and 63 others were shot in Chicago, Interim Chicago Police Supt. Fred Waller praised officers for work that he argued is already starting to show signs of progress.
As part of the Johnson Administration’s strategies to reduce crime, Waller said the department has been prioritizing gun recoveries and strengthening violent crime investigations to better address crime in the city.
He said these efforts did prove successful over the Juneteenth weekend, specifically in high-traffic areas, including the lakefront and beaches.
“A lot of the outreach and street intervention along the lakefront — we had some at 31st Street — they helped us out greatly,” he said. “We haven’t had incidents there like we had before, and we’re still just putting the same amount of resources that we had before there.”
Still, citywide shootings rose slightly from what was seen in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend, when 11 people were killed and 59 others were wounded. It was one of the city’s deadliest Memorial Day weekends of the past decade.
The West Side’s Harrison police district — the 11th District — recorded the highest number of shooting victims over the past weekend: 15.
“Eleven is, kind of, a place [where] the challenges just keep coming,” Waller said. “So we’re going to reformat some thinking and some strategies there.”
On Monday, Mayor Brandon Johnson said Chicagoans need to remind themselves that to “get ourselves out of this rut, it’s going to take all of us.”
“Everybody knows if your only strategy is policing — that is the old way of doing things, and that has not worked,” he said.
In line with the mayor’s call for an all-hands-on-deck approach, Waller announced the opening of the Bright Star Urban Resilience Network Center, which houses various mental health services for those experiencing grief and trauma.
Nicole Carter, with Bright Star, said the services include a mental health hotline, which connects people with trained community and faith leaders.
“We find that it’s really comforting to have somebody that may know you because they’re a part of your community or a part of the faith community, because typically, especially in communities of color, they don’t want to go to therapy.”
Waller said violence should be the exception, not the norm. He added that as CPD works with community and outreach partners to build what he described as “safe spaces” like Bright Star in more communities, Chicago police officers will work to “improve safety in every neighborhood.”
(The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.)
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