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Public Safety & police reform
THE PLAN FOR A SAFER CHICAGO
Our sense of safety has been shattered in Chicago. The failures of the past have been repeated over and over. Meanwhile, carjackings, property theft, and shootings are harming every neighborhood. It’s time for a new approach.
A new approach starts with reversing decades of under investment in our youth, mental health services, and victim support. As a teacher, Brandon Johnson knows we can get young people on the right track and steer them away from gun violence and carjackings by treating their trauma and giving them hope. We can enact major policy shifts on day one of the Johnson administration for a more efficient approach to stopping violent crime.
This is how Brandon Johnson’s comprehensive public safety plan will be smart and serious about crime to build a stronger city:
Enact a Day-One Plan to Get Smart and Serious About Crime
On his first day as mayor, Brandon Johnson will enact reforms to make CPD more efficient, train and promote 200 new detectives from the existing rank and file, improve transit safety, and get illegal guns off our streets.
Invest in our Youth and Communities
We start by doubling youth summer employment to over 60,000 jobs, targeting our most at-risk youth and building out a CPS Trauma Response Network.
Expand Support for Victims and Survivors
For far too long our city has ignored victims and survivors of crime, especially those who’ve experienced domestic violence. That ends when Brandon Johnson is mayor.
Mental Health, Addiction Care & Housing for the Unhoused
Brandon Johnson will support Treatment Not Trauma; reopen shuttered mental health clinics; have health professionals, not police, respond to crisis calls; and support the Bring Chicago Home ordinance to house Chicago’s 65,000+ unhoused residents.
Strengthen Police Accountability
Brandon will work closely with the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability to dismantle systemic racism, strongly enforce long-needed police accountability reforms, and evaluate department goals and performance.
Enact a Day-one Plan to Get Smart and Serious About Crime
🔵 Recruit, train and promote 200 new detectives from existing rank and file
🔵 Launch CTA Violence Intervention Program
🔵 Establish new Missing Persons Initiative
🔵 Establish new CPD Anti-Gun Trafficker Department
🔵 Establish new Mayor’s Office of Community Safety
🔵 Launch full CPD Efficiency Audit
🔵 Use non-CPD civilian positions to address non-violent calls and concerns
🔵 Streamline non-sergeant supervisory positions
🔵 Coordinate with ATF to end pipeline of illegal guns to Chicago
🔵 Strengthen enforcement of Red Flag laws
Invest in our Youth and Communities
🔵 Double summer youth jobs to over 60,000, target the most at-risk youth
🔵 Build a comprehensive CPS Trauma Response Network
🔵 Put youth on the path to prosperity with Career and Technical Education
🔵 Support the PeaceBook ordinance
🔵 Address the crisis of nearly 20,000 unhoused CPS students
Expand Support for Victims and Survivors
🔵 Fully fund the Office of Domestic Violence
🔵 Launch domestic violence survivor priority public housing list
🔵 Establish new Trauma Recovery Centers
🔵 Fully fund victim and domestic violence intervention services
🔵 Training for judges on domestic violence impact on victims and families
Mental Health, Addiction Care & Housing for the Unhoused
🔵 Reopen all 14 mental health centers
🔵 Expand 988 mental health crisis hotline to 24 hours
🔵 Treatment not Trauma and Crisis Response Teams with non-police personnel
🔵 Support Bring Chicago Home ordinance to house city’s 65,000+ unhoused
Strengthen Police Accountability
🔵 Enact Anjanette Young ordinance to end no-knock warrants
🔵 Close Homan Square, fund reparations & Burge Torture Survivors Memorial
🔵 End the ShotSpotter contract
🔵 Erase the racist Gang Database
🔵 Immediately enact the Federal Consent Decree
🔵 Publish arrest and traffic stop demographic data
🔵 Terminate officers affiliated with Oathkeepers and Proud Boys
🔵 Collaborate with democratic CCPSA and District Councils
🔵 Communities as leaders in Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS)
Enact Day-One Plan to Get Smart and Serious About Crime
On his first day as mayor, Brandon Johnson will enact reforms to make CPD more efficient, train and promote 200 new detectives from the existing rank and file, improve transit safety, and get illegal guns off our streets.
Train and promote 200 new detectives from existing ranks
Last year, Chicago logged historically low homicide clearance rates, 20% below the national average. Chicago not only has more murders than New York City and Los Angeles combined, we hold fewer offenders accountable. As his first action in office, Brandon Johnson will move to train and promote 200 new detectives. Training and promoting more detectives from the rank and file will make an immediate impact of lowering the caseloads per detective and improving murder clearance rates.
Launch CTA Violence Intervention Program
If the single best way to reduce crime is to reduce poverty, the single best way to reduce poverty is to make sure all Chicagoans can support themselves and their families. But you can’t earn a paycheck if you can’t get to your workplace.
Spending $31 million on canine patrols to catch turnstile jumpers isn’t improving safety on the CTA. As mayor, Brandon Johnson will launch a CTA Violence Intervention Program that partners with community-based organizations like the Night Ministry to connect and coordinate the housing, mental health, and support services these trauma survivors need to move from public spaces to safer, successful, and long-term solutions to their challenges.
Establish new Missing Persons Initiative
Every June, South Side community leaders hold a march advocating on behalf of missing and murdered Black girls and women of Chicago. CPD data shows that a majority of missing persons cases are young people. We will launch a new CPD Missing Persons Initiative of civilians trained in crisis response and trauma-informed care responsible for finding and bringing justice in these cases.
Establish new CPD Illegal Guns Department
On his first day as mayor, Brandon Johnson will instruct CPD to launch a new Illegal Guns Department. This team, consisting mostly of detectives, would exclusively handle illegal gun cases and be responsible for both seizing illegal guns and building cases against the distribution network of illegal carriers, traffickers and sellers.
Establish new Mayor’s Office of Community Safety
In conjunction with the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, the new Mayor’s Office of Community Safety will serve as the citywide coordinating hub for promoting violence prevention. The office will partner with law enforcement, city agencies, and community organizations to coordinate anti-gun violence initiatives, amplify community-based violence interventions, and research new approaches to stop the cycle of violence.
Launch full CPD Efficiency Audit
Brandon Johnson will launch a comprehensive efficiency audit of the Chicago Police Department to find savings that can be invested into safer streets. For example, eliminating duplicative reporting to reduce unnecessary paper processing costs could free up millions of dollars alone. This audit will allow investments to go into resources to address crime.
Streamline non-sergeant supervisory positions
CPD has far more administrative, management, and supervisory personnel than is considered best practice nationally. We will streamline public relations specialists, administrative assistants, coordinators of special projects, graphic artists, photographic specialists and other non-supervisory administrative positions. This will ensure more resources are going to the right places to make our city safer.
Use non-CPD civilian positions to respond to non-violent calls
Nearly half of the homicides in Chicago occur in six percent of its neighborhoods. Moving housing problems, and other non-violent and public health related issues into non-CPD civilian positions allows sworn personnel to address the needs of our most at-risk communities.
Coordinate with ATF to end pipeline of illegal guns to Chicago
Illegal guns are flooding the streets of Chicago, and we know where they are coming from. As mayor, Brandon Johnson will establish a more collaborative approach with other levels of government to target gun distributors, and open up a revitalized partnership with the ATF to coordinate efforts on shutting down the flow of illegal guns coming from neighboring states with lax gun laws.
Strengthen enforcement of Red Flag laws
On his first day in office, Brandon Johnson will instruct CPD to strengthen enforcement of Red Flag laws. We will double down on efforts to take guns away from those deemed too much of a risk to own them, including people with such as those with a record of violent crimes, serious mental health issues, or active restraining orders.
Invest in our Youth and Communities
We start by doubling youth summer employment to over 60,000 jobs, targeting our most at-risk youth and building out a CPS Trauma Response Network.
Double summer youth jobs to 60,000 and target outreach to the most at-risk young Chicagoans
With a youth unemployment rate of 19% for those 16 to 19 years old and 12% for those 20 to 24 years old, too many young Chicagoans feel there is nowhere to turn. Instead of lagging behind other major cities on youth summer jobs, we will double summer youth employment to 60,000 jobs. The new jobs outreach will prioritize the most at-risk youth by bringing together city government, community-based organizations and employers throughout the city to offer new opportunities to Chicagoans 14 to 24 years old and most at risk of being victimized or committing a crime.
Build a Comprehensive CPS Trauma Response Network
The cycle of violence in our schools and the streets surrounding them is unacceptable. Children are killed and their classmates, families, and communities are left traumatized. As mayor, Brandon Johnson will build a comprehensive CPS Trauma Response Network at the schools most impacted by violence that offers a range of social services to students and families to help them process this trauma and heal, while interrupting the cycle of violence.
Put young people on path to prosperity by expanding CPS CTE
As mayor, Brandon Johnson will build a Career and Technical Education corridor in Chicago Public Schools where students from schools like Fenger, Chicago Vocational, Phillips, Tilden and Dunbar receive specialized programming for building our green economy, aviation, electric vehicles, solar installation, plumbing, construction, cosmetology and more professional education that allows students to immediately earn union wages.
Support the PeaceBook ordinance and violence interrupters
Funding youth-led restorative justice models like PeaceBook will empower young people most at-risk of violent crime to interrupt the cycle of violence. As mayor, Brandon Johnson would coordinate with organizations with expertise in interrupting violence and negotiating peace in every neighborhood in Chicago. These interrupters would be responsible for negotiating peace and implementing trauma-informed remedies to intercommunal gun violence.
Expand Support for Victims and Survivors
For far too long our city has ignored victims and survivors of crime, especially those who’ve experienced domestic violence. That ends when Brandon Johnson is mayor.
Establish new Trauma Recovery Centers
Too many politicians talk about combating crime without any thought to helping those who have experienced violence. In a Johnson administration, we will put victims and survivors first. As mayor, Johnson will establish new Trauma Recovery Centers, built in collaboration with the state government to support victims and survivors of crime and domestic violence.
Fully fund the Office of Domestic Violence
We will fully fund the Victim Support Fund Program and ensure the DFSS Office on Domestic Violence has the resources it needs across the city.
Launch domestic violence survivor priority public housing list
The City can, and must, play an active role in preventing domestic violence, not just reacting once crimes have occurred. As mayor, Brandon Johnson will launch a list that prioritizes domestic violence survivors for public housing, removing Chicagoans from households where they could be threatened into safe and sound homes.
Fully fund trauma and domestic violence intervention services
Trauma and domestic violence intervention services should be fully funded through criminal justice funding designated to reduce the prison population and increase restorative justice programs. They should target specific needs and experiences of all those affected by violent crime and domestic violence.
Judge training on domestic violence impact on victims, families
Judges should receive training on domestic violence and its impact on victims and families. The criminal justice system, however, cannot be the only avenue for victims and survivors to move to safety. We will protect survivors and their families — not further endanger them.
Mental Health, Addiction Care and Housing
Brandon Johnson will support Treatment Not Trauma; reopen shuttered mental health clinics; have health professionals, not police, respond to crisis calls; and support the Bring Chicago Home ordinance to house Chicago’s 65,000+ unhoused residents.
Reopen all 14 mental health centers
Over a decade ago, Chicago politicians began closing down mental health clinics across the city. In the years since, we’ve seen the direct result of this cruel policy as a mental health crisis ravages our city. As mayor, Brandon Johnson will re-open all 14 publicly run mental health care centers in the city.
Expand 988 mental health crisis hotline for 24-hours full service
Chicagoans facing mental health crises should know that their city is there to help and support them. Gone will be the days of leaving people without the resources they need. Brandon Johnson will expand the 988 mental health crisis and suicide hotline to a 24-hour full service model that will directly save lives and point people to expanded services for mental health, substance abuse, recovery and other programs needed throughout the city.
Launch Crisis Response Teams with non-police personnel
Right now, Chicago sends police who could be investigating serious crime and preventing violent crime on non-violent, mental health crisis calls. This is not only a misuse of police resources, but a dangerous solution that often leads to harm, not help. A Johnson administration will pass Treatment Not Trauma, fully implement the state Community Emergency Services and Support Act, and deploy mobile crisis teams with non-police personnel to assist anyone experiencing a mental health crisis.
Support Bring Chicago Home to protect 65,000+ unhoused
More than 65,000 people are affected by homelessness across Chicago. Many of them are survivors of domestic violence and 1-in-4 are children. We cannot deliver a safer city without making sure the unhoused have mental health support and the affordable housing they need to be safe, sheltered and build a better life. As mayor, Brandon Johnson will support the Bring Chicago Home Ordinance to deliver funding for Chicago’s “51st Ward” — its 65,000+ unhoused — which includes nearly 20,000 Chicago Public Schools students and their families.
Strengthen Police Accountability
Brandon will work closely with the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability to dismantle systemic racism, strongly enforce long-needed police accountability reforms and evaluate department goals and performance.
Enact the Anjanette Young Ordinance to end no-knock warrants
In 2019, a Chicago social worker was handcuffed naked for 40 minutes after CPD mistakenly raided her home. As mayor, Brandon Johnson will enact the Anjanette Young ordinance to ensure this never happens again. The ordinance will ban no-knock warrants, give residents a chance to open the door to their home, require CPD officers executing home raids to act in a manner least harmful to the rights and safety of Chicago families, and protect families from trauma and harm by prohibiting officers from pointing guns at children.
Close the Homan Square facility to end the Jon Burge era
More than 7,000 Chicagoans have been held at an off-the-books warehouse in Homan Square, where they often faced torture and other unconstitutional treatment. We must ensure that the legacy of Jon Burge remains firmly in the past instead of stretching into the future. As mayor, Brandon Johnson will close the Homan Square facility, support expansion and professional development for Reparations Won curriculum in Chicago Public Schools, explore plans for reparations for survivors of police torture, and call for full funding and construction of the Burge Torture Survivors Memorial.
End the ShotSpotter contract
Chicago spends $9 million a year on ShotSpotter despite clear evidence it is unreliable and overly susceptible to human error. This expensive technology played a pivotal role in the police killing of 13-year-old Adam Toledo. That cannot happen again. Brandon Johnson will end the ShotSpotter contract and invest in new resources that go after illegal guns without physically stopping and frisking Chicagoans on the street.
Erase the racist Gang Database
The CPD gang database labels more than 280,000 people — 95% of whom are people of color — as “gang members” without requiring evidence of gang affiliation or informing them of their listing. Investigations by the Office of Inspector General have shown faulty and inaccurate practices, as well as factual errors. Just as he did at the County level, Brandon Johnson will erase the racist gang database and remove this source of racial profiling that leads to frequent, unproductive police interactions and harms residents’ ability to find housing and jobs.
Publish arrest and traffic stop demographic data
A big part of police accountability is mandating transparency on police interactions with Chicagoans. We cannot end racial profiling without tracking racial profiling. A Brandon Johnson administration will make publicly available all arrest demographic data, traffic stop demographic data, and release CPD data to FOIA requests.
Immediately enact the Federal Consent Decree
Meeting the requirements of the Consent Decree more quickly will keep people safer, drastically reduce police misconduct, and even save the city money we can re-invest in other public safety initiatives. We must move quickly, and even request permission from the federal court to modify the consent decree’s terms to include the creation of proven, effective diversion programs, like a pre-arrest diversion program that will allow officers to divert people from the formal justice system, a community mediation program that will allow community members to address disputes without relying on police, and the development of a citation program that will allow officers to give tickets — but not arrest people — for quality of life and other minor offenses.
Terminate officers affiliated with Oathkeepers and Proud Boys
We cannot tolerate police officers with direct ties to extremist organizations, including violent white supremacy groups the Oathkeepers and the Proud Boys. This is a threat to our public safety and obliterates trust with the communities officers are sworn to serve. As mayor, Brandon Johnson will fire Chicago Police Department personnel with proven ties to domestic terrorists.
Collaborate with democratic CCPSA and District Councils
As mayor, Brandon Johnson will work collaboratively with these democratically elected boards to shape CPD policy, establish goals, and better select police leadership to reflect the public safety needs of communities at the citywide and local levels.
Communities lead Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS)
Chicago’s community policing approach, known as Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS) has long been a sideshow throughout decades of City Hall leadership. As mayor, Brandon Johnson will make communities leading partners in fostering collaboration between residents and the Department to identify and address neighborhood concerns.
