BRONZEVILLE — Mayor Rahm Emanuel spent Sunday morning running the Englewood 5K race with two Chicago Police officers assigned to bicycle patrol.
The officers had told Emanuel how much they enjoyed the bike patrol, which Emanuel said has allowed them to be "more open and accessible" to residents of the neighborhood, the mayor said at Chicago Police headquarters Monday.
"They enjoy it more in their ability to interact with the community," Emanuel said.
Bike patrols just one aspect of Emanuel's and the police department's "community policing" initiatives, in which police work with community members to reduce crime and improve community conditions so violence becomes less acceptable.
Emanuel talked up the effort at the quarterly meeting of the Mayor's Commission For A Safer Chicago at police headquarters Monday. He called for all community stakeholders — police, public officials, educators and religious leaders — to join in on the effort to make communities safer.
"It's our job to make sure every kid has a sense of hope," he said.
The city has already expanded bike patrols in an effort to better police-community relations, but that's not the only effort being done along that front, Emanuel said Monday.
City and police officials announced a new police recruiting push Monday as the city gears up to offer its first police application test since 2013. Recruitment will target minority residents as the city hopes to diversify its ranks, officials said.
Police officials will spend the next few months visiting churches, schools and other neighborhood forums on the South and West sides to meet with residents interested in becoming cops.
A more diverse police force will aid the city's community policing effort because it will be beneficial to have officers from the communities they are policing, Emanuel said.
"We don't want them to just patrol the community, but be a part of the community," he said.
While Emanuel acknowledged the city's uptick in shootings and murders and called it "totally unacceptable," he did say some community policing efforts have already paid dividends.
Speaking before the start of the safer communities meeting, Emanuel said the city's funding of after-school and summer jobs programs has led to a reduction in adolescent crime.
Emanuel said there has been a 12 percent reduction in adolescent shooting victims this year, a small victory he credited to the jobs programs and other community policing efforts.
"They are about creating a safe and supervised place for kids to grow," Emanuel said.
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