A weekend-long crackdown on gun violence across the city is underway, Chicago police announced Friday night.
Police are teaming up with federal officials and other local authorities for a “targeted enforcement mission” on Chicago’s South and West Sides throughout the weekend, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said at a news conference Friday.
“We have a coordinated effort across the city, we’re doing targeted enforcement in all areas of the city that have had historic violence,” Johnson said.
Chicago police said they have been planning this operation for several weeks, and have partnered with federal agencies including the ATF, FBI, DEA, and Homeland Security, as well as the Illinois State Police and the Cook County Sheriff’s Department.
“We’ve done some positive loitering in these areas during the targeted enforcement,” Johnson said. “We’ve done traffic stop missions, but all of this is in an effort to let people know that we just simply won’t tolerate the violence that’s going on in our city right now.”
In addition to increased traffic stops, police will saturate so-called “hot zones,” or areas that have seen a pattern of crime, with larger patrols and visits to parolees.
Johnson also described “custom notifications,” in which officers go to the homes of those on the "Strategic Subject List," which is the department's algorithm to determine an individual's likelihood to be a victim of or to cause gun violence in Chicago, based on factors including previous police contact, affiliations with gang members, and more.
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“That’s not actual enforcement, that’s just going over there and knocking on their doors, letting them know that we know what they’re doing and we’re offering them services to get out of that particular lifestyle if they choose to,” Johnson said.
“As you can see, there’s police officers everywhere so we just want to send a clear message to the people perpetrating this gun violence in our cities that we just simply won’t tolerate it,” he added.
The operation is being conducted in the 6th District on the city’s South Side, as well as the 15th and 10th Districts on the West Side.
“One thing that we do every day is analyze the crime data in terms of where violent crime is occurring across the city,” Johnson said. “So these areas that we’ve designated tonight is because of that fact that they’ve had a lot of violent crime going on in those areas in the past few weeks.”
By Saturday morning, officers said that they had arrested a carjacking suspect near South Laramie Ave and West Quincy St, with Supt. Johnson assisting in the pursuit, and had recovered at least one weapon during a traffic stop in the 4800 block of West Monroe Street.
“The amount of violence in Chicago this year is totally and completely unacceptable,” Johnson said. “So the hope for this particular mission is to have no violence in these areas this weekend.”
The operation began at 7 p.m. Friday and will continue through Sunday night, according to police, who expect to release results and data from their efforts on Monday.
