by Maureen Kelleher of LISC Chicago’s New Communities Program.
July 29, 2008 – The history of police-community relations in crime-plagued urban areas doesn’t often make for happy reading, as community policing programs and other outreach efforts have been undermined by deep-seated suspicions and antagonisms among cops, residents and neighborhood groups.
Which makes a recent project among three Chicago communities and the Chicago Police Department to establish a community-friendly Web site – allowing instant and anonymous communications between residents and police – remarkable for a couple of reasons.
One, it took two full years for all parties to agree on what the system should look like and how it would work. And, two, the police-community partnership made the project a reality.
The new tool, called CLEARpath , was privately unveiled at the Chicago Police Training Academy on June 21, where neighborhood leaders and residents navigated the site and remarked on what worked and what didn’t. It went live a month later.
The meeting was the latest and most celebratory chapter in a long story about the challenges and benefits of rolling out a new Web-based communications system.
Three years ago, police began developing a Web site that would link the department’s Citizen and Law Enforcement Analysis and Reporting System (CLEAR) – a library of crime reports, maps, mug shots and other information that residents could access to help keep them informed and make their neighborhoods safer – with anyone who has a personal computer.
But they soon realized that for the system to be effective, its principal users – community residents – would have to be involved in its design.
At the same time, neighborhoods involved in NCP were searching for ways to strengthen police-community relationships, create local security plans, and test whether improved technology could be useful in promoting neighborhood revitalization.
When the police came looking for CLEARpath partners, residents from the Little Village, Pilsen and West Haven neighborhoods saw an opportunity. They weren’t sure their ideas would be taken seriously, but despite doubts, they moved forward with determination and support from the community and the police.
“We were placing our faith that something good could come from this,” said Jesus Garcia, president of NCP lead agency the Little Village Community Development Corporation , which had a strong desire to build a more cooperative relationship with the local police district. Eventually, Garcia and his organization found that the CLEARpath project wasn’t just about building a Web site.
“It’s about building mutual trust and respect,” he said. “The neighborhoods aren’t going away. The police aren’t going away. We have to learn how to get along with each other.”
Police embraced the strategy, in which a core design team of representatives from all the neighborhoods created a vision statement and principles for the Web site and held community meetings in each neighborhood to determine residents’ priorities in contacting the police department.
CLEARpath’s new look and feel made a huge splash with the June 21 gathering of about 150 people. Jonathan Lewin, information services commander for the CPD, led a quick tour of the site’s evolution.
The first version, established three years ago, was cluttered and difficult to navigate. The second version was cleaner but still unappealing. Another version reflected too much of a police image for neighborhood tastes. Finally, Lewin unveiled the new CLEARpath home page, which the crowd embraced.
“This is not what the police department has handed to you,” said Lewin. “This is what you and the police department have helped to create. When you told us, ‘No, we don’t want that,’ we went back to the drawing board. That’s what makes this unique.”
Anonymous tips
All of the CLEARpath information is in English and Spanish. (More languages will be added later.) A “community concerns” form allows residents to send tips anonymously, which should alleviate complaints that when they call 911, police often show up at the caller’s doorstep moments later, looking for more information. Criminals sometimes respond by vandalizing informants’ cars, setting their houses on fire, or even shooting them.
The site also links to police maps of crime data, district information, and community policing (CAPS), among many other resources. The new home page includes a link to theIndependent Police Review Authority ( IPRA), where residents can file complaints regarding police misconduct.
The challenge now is getting people to use it. Scheduling training sessions for residents and police at CAPS meetings may be part of the answer. Engaging young people will be a top priority and critical to the system’s success, not only as a means of improving communication between cops and youth, but also because younger people are likely to be more Web-savvy than adults.
“The fact that we’re here today proves that collaboration between diverse communities and the police can work,” said Earnest Gates, executive director of NCP lead agency the Near West Side Community Development Corporation. Gates is pleased with the product. “I like it,” he said. “It’s a lot friendlier. I hope people will use it.”
Maureen Kelleher writes about Chicago neighborhoods for LISC/Chicago’s New Communities Program.
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