
City and police officials have been scrambling to deal with a public-relations nightmare for much of 2012 because of the soaring homicide rate, up about 31 percent through Aug. 19 compared with a year earlier, according to the most recent police statistics available. The department hoped things had turned around when homicides dipped in July, the first month that happened this year, but the violence has increased again this month.
The new plan, modeled after the crackdowns since mid-January in the Harrison and Englewood districts, calls for gang, narcotics and patrol officers to saturate so-called conflict zones, according to police Superintendent Garry McCarthy. U.S. marshals and agents from the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will help target gangs, drugs and guns. While the federal assistance lasts only four months, McCarthy said the plan wasn't "a short-term solution."
Chicago TribuneToo little, too late, rahmbo. Chicago has been taken by the gangs.