Program Evaluation Summary

              Community policing in Chicago
The Chicago Alternative Policing
Strategy (CAPS): Year Ten
Vol. 2, No. 1 April 2004
Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority
Program Evaluation
Summary
Rod R. Blagojevich, Governor
Sheldon Sorosky, Chairman
Lori G. Levin, Executive Director
120 S. Riverside Plaza, Suite 1016
Chicago, Illinois 60606
Phone: 312-793-8550, TDD: 312-793-4170,
Fax: 312-793-8422
website: www.icjia.state.il.us
Program Evaluation Summaries are derived from program
evaluations funded or conducted by the Authority. The full
evaluation reports are available from the Authority.
For more information about this or other publications from
the Authority, please contact the Authority’s Criminal
Justice Information Clearinghouse or visit our website.
Printed by authority of the State of Illinois, April 2004.
Printing order #04-171.
Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority
By the Chicago Community Policing Evaluation
Consortium*
* The Chicago Community Policing Evaluation Consortium
is coordinated by the Institute for Policy Research, North-western
University. It also includes faculty and students
from the University of Illinois at Chicago. The Consortium
is supported in part by grants from the Illinois Criminal
Justice Information Authority.
The full 2002 report, “Community Policing in Chicago, Year
Ten,” and copies of earlier reports can be found at the
Institute for Policy Research website
(www.Northwestern.edu/IPR/policing.html) or they can be
requested from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information
Authority.
This is the eighth report on Chicago’s community
policing program. The Chicago Alternative
Policing Strategy (CAPS) was inaugurated in
April 1993. After experimenting in five police districts,
the program was expanded to encompass the entire
city. Part of the plan was to renew the Police
Department’s turf orientation, so teams of officers now
have relatively long-term assignments in each of the
city’s 279 police beats. The entire Department has been
trained in problem-solving following the CAPS five-step
process focusing on victims, offenders and the
locations of crime. The problem-solving efforts of beat
officers are supported by a coordinated system for
delivering city services. The program’s commitment to
community involvement is reflected in beat meetings
and district advisory committees. Monthly beat
meetings were first held in the experimental districts
and became a regular feature of the program early in
1995. Each police district has an advisory council.
Beginning in 1996, the city mounted a substantial civic
education effort to support CAPS. Television and radio
programs, billboards, videos, brochures, mailings,
festival booths, and district and citywide rallies were
targeted at promoting awareness of CAPS and involve-ment
in its activities.