Chicago tries rapid response to curb gangs

As police Commander Dana Starks contemplates the problems in his violence-plagued district on Chicago's West Side, a color-coded map on his office wall shows what he's up against.

The map displays the territories of the dozen known gangs operating in the 11th district - from the Cobras to the Black Souls to the Latin Kings. The Vice Lords alone are split into seven different factions.

Even more ominous than the number of gangs, though, is what they're doing: They've helped push the murder rate in the district to 28 so far this year - the most in the city. "We've really been trying to deal with this situation," Mr. Starks says.

He's about to get some help. Chicago is launching a new initiative aimed at stemming a rash of urban violence and shedding the city's image as one of the gang capitals of the United States.

For the first time, police here are going to conduct a daily assessment of crime trends - a move intended to allow the rapid deployment of specialized gang units to violent neighborhoods. The idea is to prevent gang-related retaliatory shootings or battles over drug turf, which has been a major reason for the recent surge in violence.

"You can't be thinking weeks or months ahead when they are thinking hours and days ahead," says Philip Cline, the Chicago Police Department's first deputy superintendent. "You must be able to assess daily trends and activity by the hour."

Chicago is hardly alone in dealing with a renewed outbreak of gang violence. Despite an overall drop in violent crime in many cities, gang-related homicides have stubbornly defied the trend in a number of urban areas. They helped contribute to a surge in murders in Los Angeles in 2002. Gang violence has also bedeviled Miami, New York, Philadelphia, and Oakland, Calif., within the past year as well.

But few places are facing the depth of the mayhem of Chicago at the moment. Police say roughly half of Chicago's more than 272 homicides so far this year can be attributed to gang violence - a murder total that has been leading the nation. Chicago had the most murders of any city in the country in 2001 and was a close second to L.A. last year. This disturbing trend, coupled with a spate of high-profile gang-related killings this year, including the fatal shooting of a 12-year-old boy as he walked home from a cleanup at a local park, has spurred the city and police into action.

Many locals welcome the fresh infusion of police. When Ed Smith, a city alderman, surveys his ward on the west side of Chicago, he sees pockets of promise. But he also sees tell-tale signs of urban decay. There are weed-choked lots and vacant storefronts, and few if any grocery stores, banks, or restaurants. The area is chock-ablock with lounges that offer late-night drinks, currency exchanges that charge steep fees to cash a check, and dingy shops that advertise "food & liquor." Some businesses never returned after riots in 1968.

Gangs have filled the void, and on some blocks, drug trafficking flourishes. "The gangs are very well organized," says Mr. Smith. "They have guys who show up every day just as if they're going to their job."

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