(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Organizations in Chicago that have worked to reduce gun violence say this has been a devastating year — one of the worst since the ‘90s.
Community leaders like Arne Duncan had high hopes for this year.
The former head of Chicago Public Schools and former U.S. Education Secretary under President Obama is now founder of Chicago CRED, a non-profit that’s worked to reduce gun violence.
This year, Duncan saw Chicago’s gun violence accelerate. He said efforts to stop it fall even further behind other cities like New York and Los Angeles, which have had some success curbing violence.
One reason, Duncan says: Those cities have spent more on violence prevention than Chicago.
“If you look at total police budgets, look at incarceration budgets, (and then) look at the violence prevention side, Chicago has been way out of whack there,” he said Tuesday.
“Chicago has been getting better. State’s doing more, city’s doing more, county’s doing more.”
But, he stresses, it’s not enough.
Duncan says gun violence was up more than 50 percent this year in Chicago.
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