CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) -
When the thermometer spikes, so does the city's crime rate. There seems to be a link between hot weather and shootings. But now, Chicago police will have a new tool to catch criminals during this heat wave.
Instead of cookouts on hot summer days, Joyce Coleman says she hears more shoot outs between rival gang members. She says she's lived in her Englewood home for 56 years. Now the crime and the killings are hard to deal with.
With temperatures in the triple digits this week, Coleman and others who live on Morgan Street say when the sun is out, so are the gun. Homicides in the city are up by 38 percent on hot weather weekends. This summer there have been between 30 and 40 shootings.
To stay ahead of the shootings while the temperatures are above normal, Chicago police say they'll beef up with patrols with more uniformed officers in three of the city's high crime areas on the west and south sides.
But after gang violence spilled onto Chicago's Mag Mile became a national story in the New York Times, residents living in these communities hope the spotlight may be create solutions.
The city of Chicago announced Tuesday it is giving the anti-violence group CeaseFire Illinois $1 million to hire 40 people who will try to mediate conflicts in police districts on the city's south and west sides.
The first-ever partnership between police and CeaseFire is part of a pilot program to help reduce crime in the Ogden and Grand Crossing police districts. The money comes through the Chicago Department of Public Health. The program starts July 13.
Police say CeaseFire will target neighborhood people who might be in a position to calm the violence.
"The amount of gun violence in our city is simply unacceptable," First Deputy Police Superintendent Alfonza Wysinger said at a news conference Tuesday. "We're not talking about numbers. We're talking about people."
The partnership was proposed after a particularly violent Memorial Day weekend in Chicago. CeaseFire has previously received state and county money, but not city of Chicago funds.
The program's announcement comes after Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said he was concerned about the partnership. According to the Chicago Tribune, McCarthy said he was "not a big fan" of how CeaseFire operates, specifically that some of the people it hires have been convicted felons.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported last month that six CeaseFire staffers were charged with crimes over the last five years while working for the group.
CeaseFire Illinois director Tio Hardiman described those staffers as "bad apples" and said he fires staffers when he learns they are involved in criminal activity.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
