Millennium City: Richard M. Daley & Global Chicago

Community Policing


When Richard M. Daley took office, Chicagoans had long been concerned about law enforcement practices. A number of residents felt unsafe in their neighborhoods and wanted more police protection. At the same time, many feared that police officers engaged in brutality or targeted minority groups through ethnic and racial profiling.

Ron Huberman, former Chicago police officer and later Daley’s chief of staff, discusses some of those concerns:

To address those and other problems, organizations like the Chicago Alliance for Neighborhood Safety had earlier advocated for what they called community policing. The purpose behind community policing was for officers to work directly with the communities they served. Harold Washington had supported the idea when he was mayor (1983-1987).
img: [Mayor Harold Washington speaks at the Second Annual Community Crime Prevention Conference hosted by the Chicago Alliance for Neighborhood Safety., October 11, 1986. Chicago Alliance for Neighborhood Safety records, University of Illinois at Chicago Library, CANS10_0052_0761_019.]

In 1993, Mayor Daley embraced community policing when he implemented the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy, or CAPS.

Ron Huberman explains how CAPS worked:

Contemporaries differed in their assessments of CAPS.

Helen Shiller, alderman for the 46th ward (1987-2011):

Terry Hillard, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department (1998-2003 and 2011):

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