Study on Chicago police reform efforts finds holes in city's approach

(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A new study on police reform in Chicago suggests the city is doing several things right — but has failed to go far enough with its ideas.

At the request of people within Chicago's philanthropic community, the New York University School of Law's Policing Project has been looking into the Chicago Police Department for years.

Professor Barry Friedman, the project director, said the city is overly fascinated with finding new approaches to policing rather than focusing on proven methods.

“It has ample ideas in hand, and if it would just turn to implementation and execution, the lives of many Chicagoans would be better,” he said.

Friedman cited Chicago's much-vaunted community policing efforts as an example.

“We have been working on that for five years,” he said. “We have had a number of mayors and police superintendents vow fidelity to the program, though that is not true of the current mayor and superintendent. Despite those claims that they were deeply interested in it, the program has never been fully staffed or implemented.”

Although Friedman said he was encouraged by the city’s pursuit of what it now calls “Treatment Not Trauma,” which sends clinicians to mental health emergencies instead of police officers, he pointed out that other cities use an expanded model that goes beyond mental health.

“Chicago’s program is much smaller than in other places and much smaller than it should be for a program in a city the size of Chicago.”

The full report can be found online .

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