14th District To Get Strategic Police Support Center

CHICAGO — The city announced a new police Strategic Decision Support Center will cover the 14th district. The new center is one of six coming to the city's North Side, all of which aim to reduce crime in Chicago. The new centers will bring smart policing technology to the districts, the city said.

“Our smart policing strategy leveraging the power of data, technology and precision community-centric policing is allowing us to make considerable progress to reduce gun violence across our city,” Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson said in a statement. “I am pleased that we will be able to expand this vital model in our city.”

The new centers will use existing data sources within CPD — such as offender criminal history databases and past crime data — and place all the information into a single, usable platform to help district command staff and officers plan for patrol deployments or prepare to respond to a call for service. The new centers will each be staffed with civilian analysts who will analyze crime trends and coordinate with uniformed staff to deliver up-to-the-minute information directly to patrol units in the field, CPD said.

The new crime-fighting centers were also announced in the 19th (Town Hall), 17th (Albany Park), 18th (Near North), 20th (Lincoln), 22nd (Morgan Park) and 24th (Rogers Park) Districts.

CPD is also expanding the License Plate Reader technology to 200 more patrol vehicles to quickly identify stolen cars, reduce carjackings and recover stolen vehicles.

"The district-based nerve centers house an unprecedented collaboration between civilian analysts who provide data and analysis, police officers who use that information to make critical deployment decisions most effective strategies in real time, and County, state and federal law enforcement officials to effectively investigate and prosecute targeted cases," the city said in a media release.

During 2017, CPD implemented smart policing strategies in six police districts on the South and West Sides.

Top image via CPD