Killing of Officer Preston sheds light on Chicago’s flawed public safety approach
Now that Chicago police Officer Aréanah Preston has been memorialized and laid to rest, we should reexamine the circumstances that contributed to her tragic loss.
Chicago’s public safety strategies remain mired in the very practices and performance record that have bedeviled our streets since before COVID-19 changed so many other things. Inadequate and poorly planned staffing resulting in a failure to maintain police beat integrity, a failing public school system and an inability, if not outright refusal, to focus our efforts on keeping violent repeat offenders off the streets are the main culprits.
Absence of a policing strategy that ensures police beat integrity: A delay of 31 minutes in police response after ShotSpotter alerted dispatchers to the gunfire that wounded Preston needs no explanation. It’s the direct result of a lack of available officers and cars to meet the city’s needs. A report last year by the conservative advocacy group Wirepoints examined 911 response times in 2021. More than half of all high-priority 911 calls were met with “no police cars available” to immediately respond. In other words, police response was delayed or entirely missing for more than 406,000 calls, including for reports of more than 32,000 assaults and batteries in progress.
The Chicago Police Department has lost more than 1,600 officers since 2019. More than 1,000 vacancies persist. Furthermore, according to data from Chicago’s inspector general, only 53% of sworn officers, as opposed to civilian employees, are assigned to police districts. Meanwhile, public safety on the CTA is left in large part dependent on low-paid, unarmed, private security guards with no power to arrest. The money the city has paid for private security would be far better spent financing an additional 300 officers.
Failure of the schools to be part of a public safety solution: The fact that all four suspects arrested in Preston’s killing are teens, including a 16-year-old, draws attention to the failing Chicago Public Schools. The teachers union’s draconian school lockdowns and failed remote “learning” inflicted major social, emotional and educational damage on students for almost two years.
The increase in violent crime involving school-age youths has been fueled by the record exodus of CPS students during the pandemic.
Large numbers of older students are chronically absent. According to the Illinois State Board of Education, 52% of CPS students were chronically truant last year. That is almost 2½ times the statewide average that year. Even those disastrous numbers may not show the severity of the truancy issue. The inspector general for CPS reports that school administrators may have misreported missing students as transferring to other schools, affecting key metrics.
State’s attorney and courts’ failure to get serious about repeat violent felons: All four suspects charged with Preston’s killing have been involved in the criminal justice system. For example, one was on probation for armed robbery and had previous juvenile adjudications related to unlawful use of a weapon, possession of a stolen motor vehicle in 2020 and robbery in 2019. Another is on probation for unlawful use of a weapon. As a juvenile, he was adjudicated delinquent for possessing a stolen motor vehicle, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, robbery, aggravated battery and disorderly conduct. Clearly, there were no serious consequences for previous violent offenses. Given their serious criminal histories, they should not have been on the street in the first place.
There is no substitute for getting at the underlying causes of violent crime by providing the investment that creates real economic opportunities in long-neglected communities, creating reentry opportunities for those previously incarcerated and restoring social service supports like mental health services. However, we will not be safe without a policing strategy that ensures that all police beats are covered by a police car. In other words, the city needs to fill police vacancies and prioritize district beats’ integrity by ensuring enough staffed patrol cars so that every ShotSpotter alert and 911 call can be met with a timely response.
Our public schools should adopt a “community schools” strategy that keeps school campuses open through the dinner hour and on weekends and holidays. CPS must partner schools with community and faith-based organizations to provide academic, mentoring and social service supports and recreational activities to keep students engaged and in safe places. Work-study opportunities must be provided to incentivize older students to remain in school and constructively engaged. Alternative school services must be expanded to include adult education and occupational training so that older students who have exited the system can be reclaimed.
While CPS cries poor, claiming to be underfunded to the tune of $1.4 billion, the fact remains that CPS’ budget consumes well over half of all property taxes paid by Chicagoans, regardless of plummeting enrollment. It receives 25% of all state and federal K-12 funding for public education in Illinois, and it spends the equivalent of $30,000 per student. This is not a funding issue. It is a resource allocation issue. Since 2019, the district has seen an increase in per-pupil spending by 40%, despite an 11% decline in enrollment.
Finally, public pressure on the Cook County state’s attorney and the courts must be ramped up to ensure there is aggressive accountability for violent offenders at every age. When it comes to charging, pretrial release and sentencing, a clear distinction must be made between violent and nonviolent offenders and habitual and first-time offenders.
The city must address the existing conditions that have led Chicago to rampant violence and provide the social service and crisis intervention resources needed so that the police are not always the first and often only responders. However, there is no substitute for ensuring police beat integrity, making the public school system a part of the solution and keeping repeat violent offenders off the streets. The ceaseless tide of victims, including Officer Preston, demands that we act.