Mayor Lightfoot has rolled out a three-year violence reduction initiative, which Chicago’s top cop says will help build trust between police and communities.
One part of “Our City, Our Safety” that sticks out to Police Supt. David Brown is the goal of his department building strong relationships with residents.
“We’ve had 66 officers shot at or shot this year, the most on record here in Chicago,” Brown told reporters. “Someone knows who shot at our cops. If they trust us, they come forward with that information.”
Another part of the plan Brown is throwing his support behind is giving police officers more help when responding to mental health-related calls.
“We want to put forth a pilot program that’s a co-responder model to mental health response that not only responds to a person in a mental health crisis with a mental health professional and police, but also some of the front and back-end work.”
Brown said that includes monitoring whether the person involved has had previous encounters with police tied to mental health issues.
Mayor Lightfoot has said issues of systemic inequality and racism will also get more attention under the plan.
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