CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) -
After a violent weekend, with gang shootings leading to more people getting killed in Chicago than soldiers dying in Afghanistan, Chicago police announce a new strategy to combat gang violence which is blamed for the majority of shooting in the city.
From Friday night through Monday morning at least five people were killed and 23 wounded in shootings around the city. That isn't the type of publicity Chicago wants as the city gets ready to host world leaders next month at the NATO Summit.
The department's new anti-violence strategy is called a Gang Audit, where beat and intelligence officers map out what gangs operate where, so cops can proactively respond to shootings.
"From the second they respond we can start looking at what's the likelihood of another event occurring, where it's going to occur, based on where something happens and who it happens to," Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said. "We can judge where the retaliation is going to come from and get cops to those locations and try to tamp it down and prevent the next violent act."
Among the victim's the weekend, 13-year-old Roberto "Adrian" Luna shot and killed near Spaulding and 46th on Saturday.
A little further north, 23-year-old Patrick Swinney was killed near Polk and Francisco. His cousin said he was the unintended victim of a drive-by, in a neighborhood where people say they don't see cops unless there's a major incident.
"The cops are not doing anything, we need more police out here patrolling these streets and stopping these gangs cause we can't do it," Antoine Larkin said.
The Superintendent said part of what's causing the increase in violence is that the gangs are changing.
"The young gang bangers are breaking off from the traditional gangs, they're fracturing, and they're forming these little segments of gangs who are now feuding with each other. The old style gang bangers can't control them," McCarthy said.
But with the NATO summit just five weeks away McCarthy said the mayor is not turning up the heat on him to crack down on the violence
"He doesn't micro manage me, he tells me what he's concerned about and I put the pressure on myself, I virtually take every one of these shootings personally," he said.
Police had tried a similar strategy under McCarthy's predecessor Jody Weis, but the difference now is that the department has done away with the Mobile Strike Force and Targeted Response Units that were not tied down to certain districts and could be moved to hot spots. Now police will now have to rely on beat officers.
