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Chicago Police To Hold Sergeants Accountable for Crime Spikes, Complaints

By Mark Konkol | February 25, 2016 11:21am
 Interim Supt. John Escalante.
Interim Supt. John Escalante.
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Getty Images/Scott Olson

CHICAGO — Chicago violent crime statistics are hard to stomach these days — shootings have skyrocketed and murders have doubled compared to this time last year — but interim Police Supt. John Escalante isn’t shying away from the numbers.

Chicago’s temporary top cop plans to expand on CompStat, the data-driven policing strategy brought to town by his predecessor Garry McCarthy, by adding a layer of crime-statistic crunching to the Police Department’s three area outposts.

“Building on CompStat’s ability to provide the Chicago Police Department with important information about police operations and crime trends, we are expanding its scope by implementing area-specific CompStat meetings for Areas North, Central, and South,” Escalante said.

“During these meetings, area leadership will have the opportunity to review crime strategy, administration, conduct early intervention on personnel issues and hold sergeants accountable for the success and operation of their units. These regular assessments will allow the department to better monitor and adapt to the individual policing needs of each neighborhood in an ongoing effort to keep every Chicagoan safe,” said Escalante.

Under McCarthy, CompStat aimed to hold police district commanders and their top lieutenants accountable for reducing crime in their parts of town.

Now, police sergeants will be judged by the effectiveness of officers under their supervision.

“These enhancements will allow CPD to dive deeper into administrative data sets that directly impact operations and deployments as well as incorporate feedback and data directly from the ground level,” police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.

A spokesman for the Chicago Police Sergeants Union said it's till reviewing the plan and declined to comment.

The area-level CompStat component will not only focus on counting crime stats. It also aims to better monitor manpower, officer overtime and attendance, as well as keep track of complaints filed against officers.

“This adds another layer of accountability, in addition to personnel and administrative issues,” Guglielmi said.

Escalante has appointed Deputy Chiefs Steve Caluris and Dave McNaughton to take over the number-crunching duties once handled by McCarthy’s top aide, former Chief Bob Tracy, who resigned this month to take a private sector job.

Caluris will oversee data related to intelligence and homeland security. McNaughton will oversee CompStat meetings and real-time data analytics, Guglielmi said.

CompStat meetings will continue to be held at police headquarters three times each month, and move to the police areas once a month. The first area-level CompStat meeting is slated for Thursday. 

 

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