December Recap and a Thank You!

Dear Friend,

We were delighted to welcome Chicago Inspector General Deborah Witzburg and Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety Tobara Richardson at our December District Council meeting.

The Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG) is an independent agency dedicated to holding local government accountable and to increasing transparency about how our city works and could work better. They’ve recently issued several pathbreaking reports about the state of public safety in Chicago, including the difficulty in assessing 911 response times due to lack of data, a deep dive into CPD’s search warrant process, and CPD’s lackluster enforcement of its rule against officers making false reports.

At our meeting, IG Witzburg and Deputy IG Richardson took us through the OIG’s eye-opening Public Safety Dashboards. Want to learn more about the 911 calls the City receives and how they’re dispatched? Trends in arrests by CPD? The number and tenure of officers assigned to the 19th Police District and elsewhere? Check out these dashboards, which provide a wealth of information that is easy to filter and visualize. The OIG’s office also took us through a tour of a couple dashboards, which you can watch at our website (starting at minute 32).

In addition, the OIG is looking for public feedback on their 2024 priorities. A city as big and complex as Chicago generates many questions, but there are only so many resources available to find answers. Click here to check out the OIG’s ideas for what to investigate in 2024, and then provide your feedback by December 31 on what you want them to prioritize.

A big thanks to IG Witzburg and Deputy IG Richardson for joining us, and to 47th Ward Ald. Matt Martin’s office for helping to coordinate this informative meeting!

As December’s meeting marked our last for 2023, we wanted to end with a note of thanks. We took office just shy of eight months ago, following this year’s first-ever election for Police District Councils. Since then, we have worked to fill in the outlines of what this brand-new role was supposed to be: a vital part of public safety and civic life in Chicago.

Already, your engagement, participation, questions, and contributions have imbued this new role with the energy and substance that generations of Chicagoans have worked toward. Thank you for showing up, making your voice heard, and keeping us accountable. This work would not be possible without you.

Our work has just begun, and we want to ensure the District Council gets even better. As we enter 2024, we’d like your input. Click here to let us know what public safety topics you want the District Council to prioritize in the coming new year.

It’s our immense honor to serve as your first District Councilors, and we look forward to working alongside you for a safer 19th District and Chicago in 2024. Meanwhile, we wish you and your loved ones a safe and happy holiday season and New Year.

In community,

–Maurilio, Jenny, and Sam

19th District Council Members

Our Next Meeting: Wednesday, January 24

Mark your calendars for our first meeting of 2024! We’ve also posted our meeting schedule for 2024 at our website’s Monthly Meetings page. Here are the details for January’s meeting:

Wednesday, Jan. 24, 6:30 p.m.

Chicagoland Community Church
836 W. Aldine

RSVP HERE

Sign Our Letter for a CPD Workforce Allocation Study

The momentum to conduct a comprehensive study of CPD’s workforce continues to grow. This month, Mayor Johnson announced his administration’s People’s Plan for Community Safety. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the plan includes a “workforce allocation study with findings made public” that will “be conducted by the Chicago Police Department.”

A City Council committee hearing to consider a workforce allocation study was moved from late December to January 2024. That means there’s still time to make your voice heard on this important topic before the committee meets early in the new year. Click here to read our letter urging the City Council to initiate a transparent, comprehensive CPD workforce allocation study, and sign your name in support!

District Councilors Set 2024 Priorities for the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA)

One responsibility of District Councilors is to meet annually to recommend priorities for the citywide Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA). On December 16, the three of us joined our colleagues from throughout Chicago to set CCPSA priorities for the very first time since District Councils were elected. They include the following:

Work with Superintendent Snelling to establish basic standards for communications and meetings between District Command staff and the District Councils and ensure that the Superintendent enforces those standards.
Set a goal for Superintendent Snelling to reduce 911 response times in an equitable manner.
Direct CCPSA staff to develop a public relations and education campaign with support from District Councils that highlights their role in public safety and police accountability.
Focus the Commission’s attention and resources on its responsibility to help to bring the City into compliance with the Consent Decree as soon as is practicable, per Section 2-80- 030(10) of the Chicago Municipal Code.
Set a goal for Superintendent Snelling to follow through on and implement its plans for a workforce allocation study that engages the Commission and District Councils.

We look forward to working with the CCPSA to accomplish these goals in the coming months.

We were thrilled to join District Councillors from across Chicago on December 16, 2023 to recommend annual priorities to the CCPSA.

CCPSA Applications Open January 8

The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA) is a seven-member body that works to increase public safety oversight, transparency, and community input into CPD, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), and the Police Board. Since it was established in 2021, the CCPSA has already had a big impact on public safety in Chicago, including by nominating Superintendent Larry Snelling to lead CPD in a historically transparent process.

The current Commissioners are in their roles on an interim basis. Applications for the next CCPSA Commissioners will be open from January 8 through February 7, 2024. A Nominating Committee consisting of one District Council member from each police district, including Sam from the 19th, will evaluate the applications, interview candidates, and nominate fourteen qualified finalists to the Mayor. The Mayor will then choose seven nominees to appoint to the Commission.

Any Chicagoan who meets the qualifications established by Chicago city ordinance can apply for this important position. Click here to check out the qualifications and an overview of the selection process. If you or someone you know is interested in applying, be sure to look out for the application when it goes live on January 8.