CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Former U.S. Education Secretary and Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan laid out ideas for reducing shootings and violence in the city before the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday morning.
While he did not commit to challenging Mayor Lori Lightfoot next year, he said he’s absolutely thinking about it; adding that the last two years have been "horrific" in Chicago.
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He said the answer is not more cops.
"If more and more police made Chicago safer, we'd be the safest city on the planet. We have more police per citizen than almost anybody."
He pointed to Roseland, where his anti-violence group works, and said police make arrests in less than one in 10 shootings there. He claims much of the public debate isn’t based on that reality.
"Electronic monitoring doesn't matter if they are not arrested. Sentencing doesn't matter if they are not arrested," Duncan said.
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He said without arrests, those who’ve been wounded or their friends retaliate.
Instead, Duncan said the city must focus on rebuilding morale within a police department that can’t hire officers fast enough to replace those leaving and put more of them in neighborhood policing.
"Our ability to increase safety will travel at the speed of trust," Duncan said. "We should reassign the ones we have from the ineffective citywide units. We cannot hold district commanders accountable if they don't have resources."
He suggested the city hire civilians to do some police work, such as writing tickets, taking care of car crashes, and responding to mental health calls so that officers can focus on violent crime. Duncan said his non-profit is trying to put to work some of the 25,000 young men and women he believes are at extreme risk for getting shot.
He also challenged the Chamber of Commerce to hire people who have come through the Create Real Economic Destiny program.
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