Contact for further information

Chicago Police Department
3510 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago ,Illinois 60653
Tel: 312-745-6071
Fax: 312-745-6932
Email: police@cityofchicago.org
www.cityofchicago.org/police

Introduction

Chicago Police Headquarter has a very colorful and artistic reception hall.While Police is looked at with a stereotyped perception of a masochist  and authoritative force yet this office of Chicago Police occupying the midst of a high crime area is a positive blend of art, calm and hospitality.This does not mean that the issue of security, safety and control has taken a backseat as scanning, checks and personal attendance is so disguised that it does not impinge upon those who enter the department office.

A welcoming reception room of Chicago Police Headquarters

How does this Police reform matter for Indian police?

In an era when any effort on police reforms is cynically politicized and hyped in the media it is important to make a balanced and calm yet a provocative analysis of a successful police reform practice in Chicago. ‘Chicago’ is a city in the United States of America . It is located in the State of Illinois which is one of the fifty states of USA. The County in which it is located is called a Cook County, in northeastern Illinois. This City has witnessed grave racist upsurges prior to the introduction of CAPS. The city appeared fairly divided among African-Americans, Whites, Hispanics and Latinos. There were deep breaches of faith amongst minority communities such as Sikhs, muslims, Jewish, Buddhist and Hindu.  A burgeoning immigrant population created more problems for tackling crimes as the police was less sensitive towards migrant populations. It was brought out repeatedly that the City Police was treated as  a weapon of the rich white community and the rest of the communities not only felt threatened but felt unsure and insecure about their life, honor and safety. The crime rate continued to increase as did the cases of custodial torture. Increasing incidents of shoot outs and killings of police officers led the frenzied police to move beyond normal police procedures to seek evidences in the name of justice. In one of the incidents following the infamous shootout in February 1982 which killed many policemen, citizens reported shooting of their pets and even holding guns to the head of their minors. Most such episodes were constantly raising controversies and in most cases a black American was labeled as the criminal hence the colored community had more reasons to fear the police. To recover from their tarnished image and gain back the trust of citizens of a city the Chicago Police Department introduced an innovative programme of CAPS.

CAPS began in April 1993 on an experimental basis in a limited area of just five districts of Chicago ( Chicago has 25 districts and five police areas). Chicago Police Department has emerged from an extremely controversial and perilous reputation to a communitarian and people friendly department in a decade and a half. The credit goes to a very well thought off system of alternate policing which has not only reduced  crime graph in the city but has brightened the face of  police before citizens.

Why is CAPS a best police practice?

CAPS is innovative and has earned several ‘Innovations in American Government Awards’. It has been cited as a model by numerous national experts, including officials at the U.S. Department of Justice and academic authorities on community policing. Management guru Tom Peters featured the Chicago Police Department and CAPS in his latest business video, Service With Soul.

Reception room of Chicago Police Department

What makes it innovative is that it brings together the community, the police and other administrative agencies together to identify and solve neighbourhood crime problems. Chicago Police Suprintendent Matt L. Rodriguez  introduced this strategy of community policing which is very specific to Chicago communities and its police culture. CAPS recognizes that the police alone cannot solve or prevent crime in the city and therefore it has to be a partnership and a collaborative strategy. This arrangement would  transcend the lack of information on demographic, cultural, racial and economic histories of criminals which the police alone tends  to ignore and therefore ends up victimizing innocents. Thus the roll out of CAPS in selected five districts only [Englewood (7th), Marquette (10th), Austin (15th), Morgan Park (22nd), and Rogers Park (24th)] was purely on the basis of their multicultural diversities, economic varieties of inhabitants, different types of crimes in the areas and lastly their levels of community associations. The successful implementation of CAPS in the five districts and its willing acceptance by neighborhood communities led to its extension to the remaining 25 districts within a year. The original districts continue to remain a laboratory of testing new ideas and strategies for the others.

CAPS has launched a new dialogue between the community and the police bridging an age old divide between them due to which crime grew. This dialogue has opened up the police to tackling crime in a manner which has not only weakened the urge to criminal behaviour  by changing the conditions which breed crime but has also increased capacity of the police force in tackling crime and being more accepted in communities.

What questions would the report try to answer for the Police in India?  

This is crucial in the background of  the Delhi Police efforts on the ‘Neighborhood Watch Scheme’ and Haryana Police programme of ‘Community Liaison’ under the Superintendent of Police have gone unnoticed. Despite the fact that this strategy is the only arrangement designed in the last 25 years which can address problems of crime in an overpopulated country like India not much thought  has gone to make it a success. Hence the Chicago CAPS may offer hope and renewed enthusiasm into the processes which help bring success in such programmes. Some questions which are raised are-

1. Does Community Policing really work?
2. Can Police Departments change themselves fundamentally?
3. What strategy of collaboration can solve crime problems?
4. What would be the likely impact on crime, people and the police?
5. Would such a strategy overcome widening racist breaches?
6. Does the crime actually drop?
7. As immigration continues to grow across the world what challenges would the police face in responding to the needs of this new population?

Evaluation Strategy

The CUPPA Department of the University of Illinois coordinated and helped in organizing this meeting with the Chicago Police Department on the 27^th March 2008. It was later realized that the meeting was part of a regular District meeting with Citizens Groups coordinating with the Police in that area. With me, were three other women, one was the Deputy in local government coordinating with the Police and the other two were from the Battle Creek Group . Reports on several aspects of  reform strategies were presented by senior officers well informed and intermittently corrected by participants on its information and programmes. Visits to different areas and sections managing reforms in a coordinated manner was also arranged and there was no show of secrecy or restrained information sharing by officers on the job. It was also seen that a large number of non-white population  especially the Indian community was put in strategic positions of  management. An incremental view of crime prevention in the city with its challenging aspects was presented and information on strategies was shared.

The Operational Aspects of reforms:

The CAPS programme was introduced in 5 districts initially in April 1993. It led to a field testing of many operational aspects of crime prevention and partnerships with local community groups. An integrated system of urban renewal through crime control and collaboration with other administrative agencies was tested and then introduced in a phased manner in stages. This also looked into the manner of  requests to other local government agencies to provide city services such as cleaning drains, street lights, better roads, house security, abandoned or damaged houses, manner of mortgages of property, loan recovering strategies , employment record keeping, arms licensing, parenting and school security etc.  This led to dividing the police force into rapid response units and beat teams. While the former looked into excess calls which beat teams were not able to respond to, the latter looked into crime prevention projects in their assigned areas.

A training programme  was conducted for Sergeants and mid-level managers between January and May 1995. It was a three day problem solving training module which was compulsory for all uniformed officers. A Civilian Administrative manager was assigned to each district which further organizes a civilian advisory committees. The District held beat community meetings on a regular basis and this led to generate an analytical crime map by August 1995. Following this they started organizing problem-solving training sessions for the general public by teams of civilians and police officers. A leadership training was also conducted for lieutenants who would take up the role of Captains after the phasing out of this post. A crime mapping system would be developed  which would further be supported with technology and advanced techniques in crime detection. This process grew into a new  Office of Emergency Communication for an early dispatching and the delivery of management data to further feed training and capacity building.

The first Citizens training programme ended in 1996 imparting organizing and education programme in almost all of city’s 279 police beats. Several Community Outreach workers were brought together to assist the beat and sustain participation. This also led to appointing some additional staff to deal with some specific but crucially important problem such as building and land use issues. A task force was also created which represented several city agencies , clusters of problem buildings as well as criminal remedies. These training programmes also took support of media, press , advertising agencies, festival booths and city marches to boost morale and participation of citizens in policing.

A Departmental planning process was introduced in April 1996 which looked into two main issues besides many subsidiary ones too; First , an identification of beat problems and second, resources required to address them. Based upon them a district plan and an area plan was developed. Under these plans the beat officers were supposed to participate into several community meetings and events to gather more information on the citizen’s priorities and requirements. These were also required to identify the individuals and groups with whom the beat would further act and coordinate.

How did CAPS help in making the city crime-free?

The crime in all major categories declined. From the data collected from CPD’s Annual Report of 2006 the Crime index (p.20) has substantially decreased from 254,573 in 1997 to 166,057 in 2006. Violent crime decreased by 1.8% and property crime was close to just .9% decrease. One of the crimes which showed the greatest decrease was the criminal sexual assault (5.1% decrease)followed by aggravated assault /battery (2.7%), burglary decreased by 4.4%, motor vehicle theft by 4.5%. However murder and arson showed an increase of 3.8% and 4.5% respectively.  A report of the causative factors was also included in the annual report . It was found that child abuse showed a negative trend ( -33.3%) and domestic violence calls also  decreased substantially in all districts. CAPS helped to prepare a more meaningful and authentic information in CPD reports about the offenders, recoveries of fire arms, the frequency of a particular crime and the age of offenders. All this led to a major change in the targeted response unit activity , special operations and investigations activity.

Can CAPS be replicated in India?

India has one of the worst police per person ratio  which is 0.95 per 1000 people as compared to 1.7 in Sri Lanka, 3.4 in Malaysia and 4.8 in Hong Kong. Besides this constraint, India has a variety of responsibilities for the police personnel from disaster management to social reform. Many states which have introduced police reforms have not been able to implement them beyond the change of titles for their officers. Most programmes which the state police organizations have formulated for themselves have gathered dust for want of resources and information. Gradually the image of police in India has only been deteriorating in a manner that deep and intractable breaches have developed between the police and  people. Worst is the fact that a section of the city looses faith in the police system and starts targeting them as enemies.

This situation is quite similar to that prevailing in the pre-reform Chicago. It really looks naïve at the outset to compare a city in a developed nation like USA with that in India with her levels of race, caste, language, land, property, gender and entitlements related crimes which is constrained due to lack of training systems, modules and also spare policemen to be trained. However it is also important to note that India has an edge over USA in human resources, pre-existing community institutions and also a family system which may help in bringing together the shattered image of the organization back to its form. The civil society in India is presently activated to join hands for a meaningful and sustainable change towards a knowledge society hence CAPS may generate a lot of interest in senior police bureaucracy to design modules of reform to improve service delivery.

Lessons learnt

Indian police has been working within the framework borrowed from the British Police. Its strict hierarchy, oppressive cadre system, politicization and an arbitrary or outdated system of lodging complaints and FIRs has concealed some good  activities which the police is capable of  performing. To bring a transformation within the police system it is important that the system be brought close to people and society.

Some states have adopted participatory techniques to involve people yet this has not been sustained for lack of training, sustained interaction and innovative education to policemen. What is important to note in CAPS is its enormous potential to sustain itself and steer through social and political turbulence through its own anchor within the society. This is due to the following

1. CAPS has a time bound strategy and deadlines have been followed in a sacrosanct manner. Thus phased out programmes and proposals have been implemented within the time frame.
2. Its continuity and consistency has been maintained through identifiable policemen and administrative officers who have been allocated fixed responsibility.
3. The dimension of leadership which is expected to make CAPS a success has been taken seriously and this inspires meaningful training and programme implementation techniques just as it is done in a financial management company.
4. There is no political interference in implementing police reforms and the police leadership is autonomous in taking its own decisions and saving time on approvals from ministers.
5. An appointment of a civilian administrative officer in every police district to coordinate police programmes with civilian groups is an innovation which may do wonders for Indian police district and surprisingly why nobody thought of it before!