Police and Community in Chicago
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Description
Highly popular with both the public and political leaders, community policing is the most important development in law enforcement in the last twenty-five years. But does community policing really work? Can police departments fundamentally change their organization? Can neighborhood problems be solved? In the early 1990s, Chicago, the nation's third largest city, instituted the nation's largest community policing initiative. Wesley G. Skogan here provides the first comprehensive evaluation of that citywide program, examining its impact on crime, neighborhood residents, and the police.Based on the results of a thirteen-year study, including interviews, citywide surveys, and sophisticated statistical analyses, Police and Community in Chicago reveals a city divided among African-Americans, Whites, and Latinos. Each faced distinctive problems when community policing came to Chicago in 1993, and during the next decade the three communities took different routes. There were tremendous improvements in the citys predominately African-American districts, where crime and fear dropped the most. Residents in majority black neighborhoods were also the most enthusiastic about community policing, turning out in the largest numbers for beat meetings, neighborhood problem-solving projects, and supportive rallies. The city's largely white neighborhoods were already solidly behind the police, yet they too registered significant gains. By many measures, however, things grew worse for the city's burgeoning Latino population. Under pressure from immigration, the Hispanic population cleaved in two. Long-time residents of racially integrated neighborhoods did fairly well, but by the early 2000s, predominately Spanish-speaking areas had fallen behind on multiple measures of crime, disorder and neighborhood decay.
Immigration will only continue to grow both in Chicago and around the world. Skogan thus concludes his pathbreaking work with a challenge for the future: more effective ways of responding to the problems facing the citys newest immigrants must now be found.
Reviews
"A landmark study of the social, political and institutional contexts of Chicago's community policing initiative. Skogan identifies critical challenges facing city leaders to democratize policing while confronting widening racial breaches in public confidence in the police. A must-read for big city mayors and police chiefs."--Jeffrey Fagan, Columbia University
"Fortunately, when Chicago unveiled the country's most ambitious community policing experiment, Wesley Skogan and his team launched an equally ambitious evaluation. The result is a rich, rigorous and provocative analysis, carefully constructed over a decade, that sheds light on the profound challenges facing policing in America--how to simultaneously build public trust, reduce crime, and support urban renewal, while confronting deep racial divides and powerful demographic forces. This elegant and insightful account will stand as a landmark in the literature of police reform, with lessons for police leaders and elected officials alike."--Jeremy Travis, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
"In a time when public sector innovation is either excessively hyped or cynically rejected, Skogan brings a refreshing balance and candor to his assessment of Chicago's extraordinary efforts to implement community policing. The book provides essential insights into what worked, what didn't, and why, and offers valuable lessons to be learned from Chicago's experience."--Stephen Mastrofski, George Mason University
"Wesley Skogan's book is an account of an extraordinary study of an equally extraordinary program - community policing in Chicago. His evaluation is notable for its thoroughness and its independence from those principally involved in developing and implementing the program. The program is notable for the character of the city in which it was established - its demographics and politics - as well as the nature and quality of the program itself."--The Law and Politics Book Review
Product Details
360 pages; 45 line illus.; 6-1/8 x 9-1/4; ISBN13: 978-0-19-515458-0ISBN10: 0-19-515458-4About the Author(s)
Wesley G. Skogan is Professor of Political Science and Faculty Fellow of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. An expert on crime and policing, he is author of Community Policing, Chicago Style and On the Beat: Police and Community Problem Solving , two books based on his years of studying Chicago's Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS). His research focuses on the interface between the public and the criminal justice system.
