Chicago Police Department Ends ‘Violence Reduction Initiative'

The Chicago Police Department is ending the Violence Reduction Initiative program designed to increase patrols on the South and West Sides on July 1, according to an order issued Friday. 

The Violence Reducation Initiative was created under former Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy in 2012 to concentrate resources in the Englewood (7th) and Harrison (11th) Districts.

When the VRI was first launched, the two districts accounted for roughly a third of all murders and shooting incidents throughout the city, according to a press release announcing the initiative in 2012.

"As part of our ongoing efforts to ensure our strategies are most effective, we are in the process of reconfiguring the VRI strategy that will allow for officers who know their districts the best to serve in overtime opportunities," CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Saturday, adding that more information about the initiative will be available soon. 

"This will not affect staffing levels, as we constantly ensure an appropriate number of officers work to keep our streets safe at all times," Guglielmi added. 

Many officers used the VRI to earn extra overtime pay, a veteran police source told NBC 5. A report from the Chicago Sun-Times found that the Chicago Police Department spent a record $116.1 million on overtime pay in 2015, which was up more than 17 percent from the previous year. 

Several police offfcers found the timing of the announcement interesting, the source said, just hours after the Independent Police Review Authority made public a website with evidence from more than 100 police-involved incidents across the city. 

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