Justice

SMART CHICAGO IS MOVING!!!

Kyla Williams

Good News!!! The Smart Chicago team is moving and now will be co-located with the City Digital Team at UI Labs. As such, our individual emails will be changing to:

Kyla Williams           

Sonja Marziano       

Denise Linn               

Leslie Durr               

Our new mailing address is 1415 N. Cherry Avenue Chicago, IL 60642 and general phone number is 312.281.6900.

Please check our website at smartchicagocollaborative.org or follow us on twitter @smartchicago for more updates.

We appreciate your patience during this time of transition.

Surveillance in Chicago: an On The Table Event at the Burger King on South Pulaski Road

Smart Chicago

I have been a member of the On The Table Steering Committee since its inception. I am very proud of my connection to this central community engagement model for The Chicago Community Trust, my employer and the place where Smart Chicago is based.

I believe in the power of bringing regular Chicago residents together to plan our collective future. I also believe it’s easy to have easy conversations— to create a private space among friends to talk about and celebrate our shared work.

But we just can’t afford to do that in Chicago today. We are in the middle of a series of crises around policing, education, the use of public space, and how to pay for the things we need. On The Table is far too important a tool to use for discussions that don’t go to the core.

So we’re hosting a dinner at an important place to talk about important things. Here’s details: Surveillance in Chicago: A Conversation at the Burger King on S. Pulaski Road

The October 20, 2014 shooting death of Laquan McDonald at 4100 S. Pulaski was a seminal event in this city. The reverberations are still being felt in the publication of recommendations from the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force, in the Pattern or Practice Investigation being conducted by the Department of Justice, and in continued protests in the streets and at the doors of power. This conversation will focus on one aspect of power: video surveillance. Our venue will be the Burger King where 86 minutes of recording went missing on the morning after McDonald’s death.

We hope you can join us. If this event fills up, we encourage you to host your own On The Table as well.

On The Table 2015

Meantime, here are some resources to help move the conversation along:

  • Burger King surveillance video section of the Wikipedia page devoted to the Laquan McDonald shooting
  • Surveillance Cameras in Chicago: Extensive, Pervasive and Unregulated
  • Recommendations for Reform: Restoring Trust between the Chicago Police and the Communities they Serve

Questions, comments, additions? Write / call / tweet Daniel X. O’Neil  (773) 960-6045 @smartchicago  @danxoneil.

Meeting 4: Notes from Police Accountability Meeting at Sullivan High School

Smart Chicago

The Smart Chicago Collaborative is documenting the four community forums hosted by the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force and held across the city in the month of February.

The purpose of the meetings were to provide residents the opportunity to speak or submit written comments on improving the accountability, oversight and training of Chicago’s police officers.

We sent a number of people to this fourth meeting, at Sullivan High School, 6631 N. Bosworth Ave.

One text documenter: see the notes here. These notes were later edited and improved by another documenter, working from the video.

Screenshot 2016-04-13 09.31.33

 Two videographers (Community TV Network, video here)

One photographer (Angel Rodriguez, images here). The meeting was conducted by the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force, and they used a portion of the video we created to prepare and post on their Youtube page as well. 

All of this material is posted under Creative Commons 4.0 license. You are free to use it for any purpose, with attribution.

When a public meeting is ended early

Here’s links to other coverage of this meeting from the the Chicago Tribune, DNAinfo, Associated Press, and Black Youth Project 100. Aldertrack compiled a Storify aggregation of Twitter posts.

About 49 minutes into the meeting, some people approached the stage (read a complete account here on our Medium post)

25242030466_2b5609e54d_o

The moderator moved from the lectern to address the crowd.

24900621289_473a388454_o

Some attendees walked onto the stage.

 24972509890_d540437e7d_o

Task force members and protesters then left the stage and were replaced by police officers.

24972485160_7b5e2cc8e9_o

Many protesters brought in signs that were small enough to not be detected upon entering (signs were not allowed in the meeting).

25149778092_28f1f6f391_o

After the meeting broke up, a resident sat by the lectern.

25149766002_4ff693c245_o

The protesters continued their work outside.

25149729802_e4f5c22f4b_o-2

 

 

Meeting 3: Notes from Police Accountability Meeting at Benito Juarez Community Academy

Smart Chicago

The Smart Chicago Collaborative is documenting the four community forums hosted by the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force and held across the city in the month of February.

The purpose of the meetings were to provide residents the opportunity to speak or submit written comments on improving the accountability, oversight and training of Chicago’s police officers.

We sent a number of people to this second meeting, at Benito Juarez Community Academy at 1450 W. Cermak Rd., Chicago, IL 60608

One text documenter: see the notes here. These notes were later edited and improved by another documenter, working from the video.

Screenshot 2016-04-13 08.53.30

 Two videographers (Community TV Network, video here)

One photographer (Daniel X. O’Neil, images here, download them all here in hi res). The meeting was conducted by the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force, and they used the video we created to prepare and post on their Youtube page as well. 

All of this material is posted under Creative Commons 4.0 license. You are free to use it for any purpose, with attribution.

Setup for a public meeting

At Smart Chicago, we’re interested in civic engagement. That’s a phrase people toss around quite a bit, often thoughtlessly, or in abstract terms. We seek to expand the practice of civic engagement, making it more common, more civil, and capable of delivering justice.

One way we try to do that is to document with specificity modes and methods of civic engagement. That’s why we published the book, Experimental Modes of Civic Engagement in Civic Tech, and it’s why we showed up at these meetings.

Here’s a look at the setup for this particular meeting. Many of the systems (lectern, stage, moderator, etc) were shared by all of the forums.

The basic setup was a series of chairs organized in rows with a center aisle. In this instance, the meeting was held in the central auditorium of the high school.

25128700702_0a240896e9_o

As usual, the CTVN apprentice was there taping the proceedings.

25246984755_b7afca88c2_o

All participants received a brochure as they walked in:

Police Accountability Task Force Brochure

Police Accountability Task Force Brochure 2

Plenty of space separated the audience from the stage:

 

25153812571_80c7936bb3_o

Tensabarriers create an aisle (also pictured is Governor Deval Patrick):

24616328174_f9e8fabe7e_o

And plenty of staff with yellow-lanyards were on hand to make the process go smoothly:

25128711312_3ae4c15cc3_o

A moderator at each meeting helped the speakers be heard. Each comment was allotted two minutes. The moderators also read the cards of people who didn’t want to speak in person.

25246990255_57a137243f_o

City Bureau was in the house.

25246976895_87bfbce7fa_o

One aspect unique to this meeting was the addition of translators. They set up a booth in the back.

24879302559_b59aa67aa4_o

More connections to, and resources for, the youth who need it most

Suzy Connor

Since the shocking murder of Fenger High School student, Derrion Albert in Sept. 2009 (which was not an incident of gun violence), Chicago’s public/philanthropic community has responded by investing more than $100,000,000 in new initiatives aimed at curbing youth violence. One Summer Chicago, Get In Chicago, and Becoming A Man (BAM) are just a few examples.

Yet with all this attention and investment, the statistics remain discouraging more than six years later. Most of the providers of these programs agree that the biggest challenge is attracting and engaging the teens and young adults who are already headed down the deadly path of gang involvement, especially those that have already been arrested.

This is not meant to diminish the value of the public and nonprofit programs that are successfully engaging thousands of teens on the south and west sides of the City in positive/creative youth development programs. Data show that involvement in the arts, sports, and tech activities – particularly when combined with mentoring – will likely help the participating youth avoid violence and make healthier life choices if it is sustained over time. (See “The Crime Lab study finds youth employment program has impact on violent crime arrests“)

The after-school and summer programs are helping concerned parents find safe spaces for their teens and exposing the participants to skills, such as digital media, web design, performing arts, and visual art.

The Urban Institute evaluation of the Arts Infusion Initiative holds some promising insight into engagement strategies that are effective with the more challenging (and more challenged) teens who have already been arrested and are statistically far more likely to be either the perpetrators or the victims of violence.

The “expose, inspire, connect” approach that began with grants to  nonprofits like Storycatchers Theatre, Young Chicago Authors, Kuumba Lynx, Free Write Jail Arts and a digital music lab for residents at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC) has reached more than 4,000 incarcerated teens since 2010. (Hear their voices here.) Most report that they are being exposed to the equipment and instruction for the first time.

One explanation for this is the still-limited availability in low-income areas, but the disconnect is also caused by these young men’s (and it is almost all male) loss of connection to school and their inability to travel safely around their neighborhood or to feel welcome at after-school programs that emphasize safe spaces. Those released teens and young adults who connected with the Arts Infusion organizations were just as likely to travel outside of their immediate neighborhood and often sought out instructors who taught at facilities on the North Side, such as Street-Level and Kuumba Lynx.

Offering the information to every teen leaving JTDC in a format that makes the “connect” process easier for them needs to go beyond adding another piece of printed material to the already overwhelming release process. For this reason, Smart Chicago retained Greater Good Studio to develop a USB DRIVE. You can read more about how it worked here.

Drive

Reporting Back on City Bureau’s Open House

Chris Walker
City Bureau people in public meeting

An attendee exploring one of City Bureau’s articles in front of orange-capped Editorial Director, Darryl Holliday

On Wednesday, January 27th, our partner City Bureau hosted their first open house at Experimental Station, a curious wing-shaped building in Woodlawn, Chicago. A number of south-side focused grass-roots organizations call Experimental Station home, including 61st street Famers Market, Blackstone Bikes, Link Up Illinois, and South Side Weekly.

Experimental Station

Southside Weekly’s workroom in Experimental Station

City Bureau is a community newsroom that aims to divest from the traditional journalism model and regenerate civic media. The integral part of that is placing the narratives of the west and south sides back into the hands of its most overlooked residents– the youth.

City Bureau operates with a level-based model where reporters are placed into three tracks. Level three is the most experienced track of reporters in which the journalists work in the field and also act as mentors to the level one reporters. Level one reporters are the least experienced, but are also the youth that have the most intimate stake in the action in their own neighborhoods.

“This training [rubric] fosters social and emotional learning in conjunction with trauma training,” explained Educational Director, Andrea Hart. She designs and writes curriculum for the level one program. She further explained that “these people, because of historically racist/classist policies, are experiencing complex trauma and therefore it is important to contextualize curriculum accordingly. Trauma informed education doesn’t harm anyone. It’s a benefit to all whether or not they have gone through traumatic experiences.” The training and mentorship that the youth receive operate within this framework.

City Bureau

Level 3 reporter, Xavi, speaking to an attendee

They were joined on Wednesday by their partners Illinois Humanities and the Invisible Institute.

Read more on City Bureau’s Police Accountability highlight in the Reporting Back series with Illinois Humanities here.

The Invisible Institute was there showcasing the Citizen’s Police Data Project, a digital map which showcases a database of 56,000 misconduct complaint records for more than 85,000 Chicago police officers.

citizens police data project

Screenshot of  cpdo.co

Chaclyn Hunt, head of the Youth / Police project at the Invisible Institute explained the Citizens Police Data project. Users of this tool may search by officer name and badge number. An interesting catch that they learned while collecting this data, is that badge numbers are recycled, so a search of a single number may come up with the compiled complaints of three different officers. To assure accurate information, names and numbers must be cross checked.

DSC00055

Chaclyn Hunt explaining the Citizens Police Data Project to an attendee

Some search categories of this tool include: Bribery/Official Corruption, Verbal Abuse, Drug / Alcohol Abuse, Illegal Search, and dozens more. One may search by outcome i.e. allegations, sustained, or unsustained and also by race and gender.

If you are abreast of the current unconscionably racist climate in Chicago, it is unsurprising that a black person is twice as likely to file a complaint against the a police officer, but half as likely to have the complaint addressed. Additionally, black police officers are twice as likely to be punished versus their white counterparts.

Read more on the work of the Invisible Institute here.

Editorial Director, Darryl Holliday

Editorial Director, Darryl Holliday

For more on City Bureau follow them on Twitter, Facebook, or follow their blog.