Safety & Justice

WE FACILITATE INSTITUTIONAL REFORM AND COLLABORATIVE TRANSFORMATION TO ADDRESS SYSTEMIC INEQUITIES AND MAKE THE CHICAGO REGION A SAFE AND JUST PLACE FOR ALL

FOCUS AREAS

Police reform and accountability
Addressing violence as a public health crisis
Justice system reform

PROJECTS

Implementing pilot reforms at the Chicago Police Department
Building a roadmap for community-led police reform
Breaking down barriers to regional gun violence collaboration
Advancing a whole of government, community-driven approach to violence prevention
Structuring Illinois’s Office of Firearm Violence Prevention
Harnessing the collective impact of philanthropy to address violence
Prioritizing reform with the Pretrial Stakeholders Working Group
Implementing the Pretrial Fairness Act and culture change management

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POLICE REFORM AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Implementing pilot reforms at the Chicago Police Department

Project: Chicago Police Department Reform Support — Ongoing

Client: Chicago Police Department

With a national reckoning on the role of police and mounting pressure to meet the requirements of the consent decree, the urgency to change the status quo at CPD is greater now than ever.

In January 2019, the City of Chicago and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office entered into a consent decree mandating effective, lasting reforms at both the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA). Civic Consulting Alliance is a long-term partner in supporting Chicago Police Department reforms. We supported CPD in creating a shared vision, purpose, and understanding of future reform, as well as the implementation plan for the cultural change initiatives that must accompany policy shifts. We worked with CPD to develop a project management structure to guide the implementation of reforms being piloted in one district, District 006-Gresham, and eventually, department-wide.

ADDRESSING PAIN POINTS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF REFORMS

We supported three specific initiatives to address pain points in the implementation of the pilot reforms.

Created a training series to equip front-line supervisors with the skills needed to drive reforms. We leveraged the private-sector expertise of Civic Consulting Alliance’s Advisory Council, interviewing members specializing in change management and leadership development to inform the training approach.
Developed a preliminary pilot framework for implementing Unity of Command and Span of Control requirements, standardized the supervisor scheduling process, and developed tools to monitor supervisor staffing data. Our pro bono partner Slalom built a mock-up of an app for future automation of the current manual scheduling process.
Created a roadmap – including recommendations and an implementation timeline – to guide CPD’s merger of Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS) and the Neighborhood Policing Initiative (NPI) to eliminate redundancies that prevent CPD from most effectively engaging and supporting communities.

“Though challenges remain, this year CPD has seen a significant reduction in homicides and shootings while instituting policy reforms within the agency. We thank Civic Consulting Alliance for their contribution to these efforts and their continued support.”

— Tina Skahill, Executive Director, Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform, Chicago Police Department

BUILDING AN INTERNAL REFORM COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY

With pro bono support from Zeno Group, we launched an audit of CPD’s internal communications to ensure that the purpose and practicalities of consent decree reforms are communicated to all CPD members deliberately and thoughtfully. This project will equip CPD with a messaging framework, engagement strategy, and implementation plan to drive internal communications and to further strengthen Department-wide understanding of and support for reforms.

LOOKING FORWARD — 2022 AND BEYOND

In the months ahead, CPD will continue to pilot this holistic reform approach in District 006 and beyond, with the goal to expand Department-wide within the next year. While implementing consent decree reforms across CPD is an enormous change-management effort, we are optimistic that by complementing core reforms with the culture change initiatives above, CPD is on the path to becoming a more just institution that in turn more effectively serves Chicago communities.

THANK YOU

Our pro bono partner Slalom built a mock-up of an app for future automation of the current manual scheduling process, Zeno Group, for providing an audit of CPD’s internal communications.

Building a roadmap for community-led police reform

Project: Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability Roadmap

Client: Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability

For many years, advocates have called for reforms to strengthen police accountability, improve policing, increase engagement, and build greater trust between the police and Chicago residents. In 2019, the City Council adopted an ordinance to create the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (Community Commission), a new community-led Commission that will give residents powerful new tools to provide oversight of the Chicago Police Department (CPD), COPA (Civilian Office of Police Accountability), and the Police Board.

We provided organizational design and strategy development to support the Executive Director, Adam Gross, in developing the operational structures the Community Commission needs to provide effective and meaningful community oversight of the police and police accountability agencies. As a result of this foundational work, the Community Commission is equipped with the structure and strategies needed to immediately begin working toward its goals to improve policing, increase resident engagement, build greater trust between the police and Chicago residents, strengthen accountability, and make the city safer and more just

“Building a new City department from scratch is an extraordinary undertaking and Civic Consulting Alliance is an extraordinary partner. The launch toolkit, onboarding plan, and training materials that Civic Consulting Alliance developed will be crucial for ensuring that commissioners have the knowledge and information that they need to effectively carry out their duties starting on day one. Civic Consulting Alliance has built an incredibly strong foundation for the Community Commission’s success.”

— Adam Gross, Executive Director, Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability

LOOKING FORWARD — 2022 AND BEYOND

In the months ahead, Civic Consulting Alliance will support Executive Director Gross in the development of an onboarding process that will enable interim Commissioners to begin to carry out their duties in an effective and timely manner, as well as build out processes and procedures for executing the Community Commission’s most immediate priorities. As the Community Commission begins operations, we anticipate providing support for future phases of work, which may focus on defining processes by which the Community Commission and forthcoming District Councils will facilitate community co-creation of public safety.

THANK YOU

Polk Bros. Foundation for the generous project-specific grant, pro bono support from Protiviti, and Northwestern University

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ADDRESSING VIOLENCE AS A PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS

Breaking down barriers to regional gun violence collaboration

Project: Intergovernmental Violence Prevention

Clients: State of Illinois, Cook County, City of Chicago

The State of Illinois has declared gun violence a public health crisis. The City of Chicago, Cook County, and State of Illinois pledged a combined $350 million to reimagine their approach to public safety and quell the violence. However, reimagining public safety at the local and state level requires unprecedented collaboration between dozens of entities. Civic Consulting Alliance responded to their request to coordinate across these civic entities and maximize the collective impact of public funding.

“Civic Consulting Alliance’s exceptional project management skills and expertise in collaborative violence prevention efforts kept us aligned and focused on our shared violence prevention goals. We are grateful for your service to the residents of Greater Chicago.”

— Lanetta Haynes Turner, Chief of Staff, Cook County

In 2021 we conducted data analysis of current investments, and designed and facilitated three workshops with the City, County, and State to catalyze coordination on investments to prevent or reduce violence, including the use of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding. The first workshops aligned the parties around (1) core principles for initiatives to support violence prevention and reduction, and (2) coordinated geographical investments to serve communities of greatest need. We recommended the launch of two intergovernmental working groups to focus on: (a) aligning strategies for funding opportunities that support interventions for those at highest risk of violence; and (b) developing an integrated approach to capacity building for violence prevention/intervention organizations.

The City, County, and State launched these two working groups in fall 2021 and are actively working together. One direct outcome was a “Readiness Summit” for nonprofits, community organizations and vendors to learn more about funding opportunities to support violence prevention, youth programming, public health, community development, and infrastructure.

As each entity now awards funding based on common principles for community violence intervention, integrated strategies are being developed to measure impact through common grantee reporting metrics, long-term evaluative approaches, and capacity-building initiatives for community-based violence prevention and intervention service providers.

“Civic Consulting Alliance helped us develop a structure for approaching community safety that is driven by the needs of Chicago residents, and that will ensure more effective and efficient use of City resources. I am deeply grateful to your team for providing us the capacity and expertise we needed to accelerate this critical work.”

— Tamara Mahal, Former Chief Coordination Officer, Community Safety Coordination Center

Advancing a whole of government, community-driven approach to violence prevention

Project: Community Safety Coordination Center Roadmap

Client: Chicago Office of the Mayor

The Community Safety Coordination Center (CSCC), is a first-of-its-kind, multi-agency coordination center to advance a whole of government, community-driven approach to violence prevention and reduction for the City of Chicago. The CSCC brings together City departments and agencies—ranging from the Chicago Police Department to those not traditionally considered part of the safety ecosystem, such as Chicago Public Libraries, Chicago Park District, and Chicago Public Schools—alongside community organizations and leaders to advance community safety initiatives aimed at addressing the root causes of violence. The CSCC takes a place-based approach, focusing on 15 communities prioritized in the City’s comprehensive violence reduction plan, “Our City, Our Safety,” starting with West Garfield Park, North Lawndale, Little Village, and Englewood.

Civic Consulting Alliance has experience structuring effective models for collaboration— including standing up the City’s Racial Equity Rapid Response (RERR) Team, and supporting violence reduction coordination at intergovernmental levels. Because of this recent work, the Mayor’s Office requested that we provide expertise to align CSCC stakeholders on a unified vision and roadmap to support City agencies and departments in evolving their initiatives and operations to align with the City’s vision for reducing and preventing violence.

The Mayor’s Office and CSCC stakeholders are now using this framework, initiative map, and best practice toolkit to coordinate violence prevention and reduction efforts across City departments, sister agencies, and community-based organizations. This systems-level approach represents a new way for the City to work to reduce violence in Chicago, focusing on the root causes of violence, and centering on community knowledge and expertise. In addition to supporting intergovernmental coordination, Civic Consulting Alliance also provides support to the individual entities’ strategies.

Structuring Illinois’s Office of Firearm Violence Prevention

Project: Office of Firearm Violence Prevention Strategic Roadmap

Client: Illinois Department of Human Services

Firearm violence is a multifaceted challenge that requires a public health approach to stop the cycles of violence in disproportionately impacted communities. The Reimagine Public Safety Act, which was passed by the Illinois General Assembly in 2021, resulted in the creation of the State of Illinois’ Office of Firearm Violence Prevention (OFVP). We developed a short-term strategic roadmap to position the Office of Firearms Violence Prevention to expeditiously and thoughtfully administer $250 million in grants to communities across Chicago and other municipalities experiencing the highest levels of violence. Now, the Office of Firearm Violence Prevention has an aligned organizational model and project management structures to execute the priorities of the Reimagine Public Safety Act.

Harnessing the collective impact of philanthropy to address violence

Project: Ongoing Management of Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities

Client: The Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities

Much like the benefits of intergovernmental alignment and coordination, philanthropic foundations aiming to reduce gun violence can be more effective when they harness the collective impact by aligning strategy, funding, initiatives, and outcomes. Formed in 2016, the Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities (PSPC) has grown to be a coalition of more than 50 funders who align their funding on a catalytic basis to urgently and sustainably reduce gun violence in the Chicago region by creating an evidence base that can spur systemic change and public sector investment. From the beginning, Civic Consulting Alliance has guided this coalition, building upon our body of Safety and Justice Platform work and our experience managing complex collaboratives to provide project management, operational, strategy development, and fundraising support. In 2022, Civic Consulting Alliance, with pro bono support from Lantern Partners, helped PSPC design a sustainable backbone staffing structure - including an inaugural Executive Director - that will drive PSPC’s impact for the next five years.

THANK YOU

Lantern Partners for their pro bono support in helping PSPC recruit an Executive Director.

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JUSTICE SYSTEM REFORM

Prioritizing reform with the Pretrial Stakeholders Working Group

Project: Cook County Pretrial Stakeholders Group

Clients: Cook County Office of the President, Cook County Office of the Chief Judge, Cook County Public Defender, Circuit Court of Cook County, Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court, Cook County Sheriff’s Office, State’s Attorney of Cook County

Nearly three-quarters of the people in Cook County Jail are held accused, but not convicted, of non-violent crimes. Many defendants could be safely released before trial, but cannot afford their bond. The human cost is high: while detainees await trial, their lives are interrupted, often affecting their housing, employment, education, family, and relationships. The cost to taxpayers is also high: as the nation’s second-largest jail, Cook County Jail costs Illinois taxpayers more than $300 million annually. At the same time, those who are a threat to society should not be allowed to buy their way out of jail while awaiting trial.

Recognizing these costs, in 2013, Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle asked the Illinois Supreme Court to intervene. The Court produced an audit with 40 recommendations to reduce the number of low-risk defendants being detained and to ensure that those who pose a threat are not released. In fall 2014, Civic Consulting Alliance began working with the Cook County Board President, Clerk of the Circuit Court, Sheriff, Public Defender, Chief Judge, and State's Attorney—the Cook County Pretrial Stakeholders’ Group—to implement the audit recommendations. For over seven years, Civic Consulting Alliance has continued to provide strategic project management to the Stakeholders by convening the Stakeholders quarterly; guiding project implementation planning; and monitoring initiative performance.

Today, the Cook County Pretrial Stakeholders’ Group utilizes a framework – developed with support from Civic Consulting Alliance - to identify and execute criminal justice reform priorities, including the elimination of cash bail, improvement of electronic monitoring practices, and alignment of data collection and utilization practices across criminal justice stakeholders.

Implementing the Pretrial Fairness Act and culture change management

Project: Cook County Implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act Working Group, Cook County Pretrial Fairness Act Culture Change Management

In January 2021, the Illinois legislature passed the Pretrial Fairness Act (“PFA”). This historic legislation restores the presumption of innocence and makes Illinois safer by ending money bond and the unconstitutional practice of jailing people pretrial simply because they cannot afford to buy their freedom.

We supported the Cook County Pretrial Stakeholders Group in standing up the Pretrial Fairness Act Implementation Working Group, which is responsible for implementing the requirements of the State Pretrial Fairness Act by January 2023 (when the Act goes into effect). Pretrial detention can have dire consequences—many pretrial detainees lose their homes, jobs, or even custody of their children, without ever being convicted of a crime. We collaborated on building a working group structure that brought key system stakeholders, advocates, experts, funders, and individuals with lived experience to the table to work towards implementing the policy and practice changes required by this complex but critical legislation.

Beyond implementing significant policy and practice changes, realizing the lasting change intended by the spirit of the PFA – creating a more equitable and safe criminal justice system – requires a complementary culture change. After launching the working group, with support from a pro bono partner, we moved on to building a change management plan. Over the course of three months, a pro bono partner facilitated dozens of workshops with leaders across Cook County justice system agencies to share change management best practices, understand perceptions of and perspectives on the Pretrial Fairness Act, and develop agency-specific change management plans to ensure successful implementation of this legislation.

Indicators

Civic Consulting Alliance evaluates long-term indicators to inform our platform visions and our mission. These indicators also help us understand how the challenges we seek to address impact people in our region inequitably, shaped by factors like race, ethnicity, gender, or neighborhood. In turn, these indicators highlight that our solutions must be equity-focused and guided by the people they most impact.

HOMICIDES, SHOOTINGS, AND RACE BY COMMUNITY AREA
City of Chicago | 2020

Chicago continues to experience higher levels of shootings and homicides than our peer cities. Moreover, gun violence disproportionately impacts Black and Latinx Chicagoans, a pattern that can be clearly seen on a map of our city’s neighborhoods, due to decades of policies and practices promoting segregation and concentrating resources in predominantly White neighborhoods.

SHOOTINGS & HOMICIDES (#)
City of Chicago | 2011-2022

The graph below depicts the total number of non-fatal shooting incidents and homicides per year in Chicago. Both types of violence increased dramatically in 2016, 2020, and 2021.

Avg. Daily Population (#)
Cook County Jail | 2011-2021

The graph below depicts the average number of people held in Cook County Jail per day, overall and by race/ethnicity.

Population (%) - By Race
Cook County | 2019

The graph below depicts the racial composition of Cook County in 2019.

KEY TAKEAWAY

The average daily population of the Cook County Jail has decreased since 2011, suggesting progress towards a more just and efficient pretrial system. However, while Black residents made up 24% of Cook County’s population overall, on average, 73% of Jail residents were Black, demonstrating that significant racial inequities in our criminal justice system remain.

Special Notes:

Average Daily Population, Cook County Jail—Disaggregated data by race is only available beginning in 2018.
Pretrial System and Jail—We use the terms 'pretrial system' and 'jail' throughout this Impact Report. The pretrial justice system begins when a person comes into contact with law enforcement and ends when any resulting charges are resolved—usually through a dismissal, a plea, or a trial. Jails house people who are newly arrested or awaiting trial or sentencing, whom the court has therefore not yet found guilty of committing the crime of which they are accused, as well as those serving sentences less than one year for state misdemeanors.

Platform Funders

In addition to the many pro bono partners acknowledged in the Safety and Justice projects described above, the following corporate and foundation partners committed philanthropic support to fuel our staff investments in our Safety and Justice platform:

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General Operating Funders

Our ability to maintain our flexible and responsive capacity to get big things done in all platforms relied on those philanthropic partners who provided general operating support for our mission:

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