Wednesday, January 9, 2013

CAPS Gets Rebooted, Restaffed & Personalized

Amid rumors that the city's CAPS program would be eliminated, yesterday it got new life, new staff, and a personal touch. According to the Sun-Times:

Calling community policing done right a “force multiplier,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Supt. Garry McCarthy tried Tuesday to breathe new life into Chicago’s once-vibrant but now stagnant CAPS program. The plan to move 50 community policing employees from police headquarters to districts and place the entire program in the hands of Chief of Patrol Joe Patterson follows through on promises made in the mayor’s 2013 budget address. 

In addition to a CAPS Sergeant, each police district will get "two police officers along with a community organizer and access to a youth service provider and area coordinator."  In addition, the commander for each district will personalize the CAPS program to fit what he or she feels is best for the particular area.

Former 20th District Commander Lucy Moy is now one of the officers overseeing the CAPS program.

Read more in the Sun-Times and see a video and article on Chicago Tonight.

Next CAPS meeting is tonight for Beat1914 (lakefront to Broadway, Montrose to Lawrence), at the Clarendon Park Fieldhouse, 7pm.

9 comments:

  1. So is CAPS the solution now?

    When I lived in New York, there were police everywhere you went, all the time. It felt safe. Is it because of budget cuts there's less police here? I rarely see police on a typical patrol walking the streets no matter what part of town I’m in.

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  2. CAPS isn't "the" solution, but having it is certainly better than not having it.

    Wang Chung, not sure if you are joking, but in case you really don't know, it's been common knowledge that the police force has been 2500-3000 officers short for years now. The academy classes don't even make up for the number of retirees. The state and city are broke, and probably gonna be more broke before it gets better. Thank bad management of the pension programs, runaway corruption, and TIFs siphoning away money meant for public services.

    We'd all love to have more cops, both on patrol and walking the beat, but it isn't happening anytime soon.

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  3. A useless program that is just feel good for uninformed citizens.

    The money should be put into hiring Police Officers.

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  4. I used to go to CAPs, but it was a huge waste of time. Gobs of time taken up by little old ladies with disputes over the neighborhood squirrel feeders, et al.

    Once, two blocks away from me, a naked dead guy was found in a dumpster. I asked the CAPs officers what happened. No explanation, except they insisted there was "no foul play" involved.

    I asked, well did the guy take off his clothes, jump in the dumpster and die - or - did he jump in the dumpster, take off his clothes and die. Cuz any one who is naked, dead and in a dumpster, in my opinion has met some kind of foul play.

    I was met by dead silence and cold stares.

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  5. We need real community alternatives, instead of relying on the police to solve OUR problems. Take a page from the Black Panthers. Here's a clip of them organizing here in UPTOWN.

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  6. Toto,

    you lack imagination.

    There are many perfectly valid reasons one could be naked and in a dumpster.

    Now add the "dead" part to the dumpster equation and it does bring up some more questions.

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  7. Dont waste your time. Nothing is accomplished at these meetings. Does anyone have an experience where something productive came out of one of these meetings?

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  8. Operation "Uptown"
    Operation "Broken Arches"
    Operation "Walk in the Park"
    Operation "Happy "Wash"
    Operation "Sugar Magnolia"
    Operation "Uptown Crackdown"

    Am I forgetting any others? Anybody?

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  9. If I am not mistaken, most of those people are back out. Its either that or they were not the big hitters....so again..anybody?????

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