Legend

The CAPS that doesn't work

Background Information

Historical Perspective

Back in  February of 2003 a member of the Citizens for Community Action, Inc. requested  an election for a beat facilitator.  This lady was then subjected to intimidation by one of Chicagos  Not-So-Finest Police Personnel.  He  had threatened to have her banded from the meetings that occur at St. Stanislaus  B & M Church, using the Rules for CAPS€� as a rationale.

The Citizens  for Community Action, Inc. filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request  with the Chicago Police Department seeking the Rules for CAPS.  We were told that the 25^th District didn’t have any rules.

We reasoned  that if one police district didn’t have any rules, how many really have rules?   So, we expanded on the FOIA and sought the Rules for CAPS for all 25 Districts.  All but two districts complied and provided the rules for the  District Advisory Council (DAC) or the District Steering Committee.  The two districts that did not comply  are District 13 and District 25.

After  reviewing the DAC information from several police districts, it was noted that  the DAC uses public funds.  So,  another FOIA was prepared seeking information relating to the monies the 13^th and 25^th District use.   You can find this request online.

Again the  Chicago Police Department did not comply with our request.

The Citizens  for Community Action, Inc. then filed an appeal with Mayor Daley and Police  Superintendent Hillard.  We are  still awaiting a reply.

 Informational Picket

 The Citizens  for Community Action, Inc. held an informational picket on the South end of the  Bricktown Mall. 

During that  picket Wayne A. Strnad, the Director of the organization, received two tickets for alleged illegal parking and no front plate (date for tickets - July 2,  2003).  This was a clear act of  retaliation aimed at Mr. Strnad because of the pickets ability to bring light  to the crime that was occurring in the area and the poor service McCotter was  giving to the community.

A property tax  comparison was made between the area that McCotter lives and an area of the 25^th District.  This can also be found  online from the opening page of this website.

Petition Drive

The Preamble  to the Constitution of the United States allows for citizens to petition the  government.  Seeing that there was  no cooperation with the community, a petition was written to seek the removal of the commander of the 25^th District, Michael McCotter.

During the 2-3  weeks prior to presentation, we collected more than 2,200 signatures.  Needless to say, there is a great deal  of dissatisfaction with the services provided by the 25^th District  under the direction of McCotter.

During this  circulation, Wayne A. Strnad received a third ticket.  Clearly, this is retaliation.

Petition Presentation

On August 12,  2003 a press conference was called so that we could explain the purpose of the  petition.  After the conference we  walked inside Chicago Police Headquarters to present the petition to the  Superintendent of Police, Terry Hillard.  Of course, we did not see Hillard but met with one of his aids.  The petition was then officially  presented and received by this aid.

More than 2200 People Cannot be Wrong

The day we  presented the petition to Superintendent Hillard, a media representative for the  Chicago Police Department tried to downplay the petition saying that it  represented only a small number of individuals in the district - about 1%.

Fact is the  number of signatures one needs to run for alderman in Chicago is 240.  We accumulated nearly 9 times that  amount in our petition drive.

Also, any  sampling for a poll is considered a good sampling if 500 - 1000 people  participate in the poll.  We’ve  accumulated between 2 - 4 times that amount.

Needless to  say, the Chicago Police Department simply cannot ignore this petition for it is  a good representation of the will of the people.

To view the  names of those individuals who signed the petition, please click here Note:  The ordering of the online version of people who signed is not  necessarily the ordering of the original petition i.e. there is not necessarily  a 1 to 1 correspondence in pagination although all pages are presented online.

To protect the  privacy of the individuals who signed, we have edited the original scanned  document to exclude their address.

Sun-Times Article

The biggest increase in violent crime [homicide, criminal sexual assult, robbery, aggravated assult and aggravated battery]: Grand Central on the Northwest Side with a 15 percent increase.

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