Cook County gets Gun Violence Coordinator to Help Curb Shootings
In response to Chicago’s spiraling shooting deaths, the Cook County Board of Commissioners authorized Sheriff Tom Dart to appoint a gun violence coordinator – believed to be the first nationally.
“There is simply no more pressing issue in Cook County than that of gun violence,” said Cook County Commissioner Richard R. Boykin (Dist.-1st), sponsor of the ordinance. “[Last week’s] vote represents a significant step in breaking down bureaucratic barriers and creating working relationships across silos so that all county stakeholders are working from the same strategic playbook, in a coordinated fashion, to make progress on a single goal: reducing the number of shootings and gun violence in Chicago and Cook County.”
Dart is expected to select a coordinator by the end of the year, Boykin said. The funds to pay for the job would come from existing funds in the sheriff’s office, he said.
The ordinance also establishes a 15-member task force, which includes the coordinator. The task force members would contain representatives or appointees from many stakeholders, including the county, the Cook County State’s Attorney, Chief Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, and the Chicago mayor’s and Illinois governor’s offices.
The coordinator would serve as the official liaison between the task force, local, state and federal officials, and county commissioners. The coordinator also would have the power to convene the task force’s public meetings in troubled areas of the county.
After the public hearings, the task force would complete a report on its findings, officials said.
“The report will contain an overview of factors contributing to gun violence in Cook County, the effects of gun violence on victims and community members, and a set of policy recommendations designed to reduce gun violence and the harmful effects associated with gun violence,” the ordinance said.
The ordinance added that the “task force shall convene to review the totality of its proceedings to date and determine the steps necessary in order to implement the policy recommendations set forth in the report.”
“I am definitely for a [gun coordinator] who is hoping to look at holistic ways to deal with gun violence, said Marian Perkins, who chairs the criminal justice, political science and philosophy department at Chicago State University.
“We need to support providing sustainable jobs in the community and having resources to help families,” Perkins said.
Such help, would help reduce gun violence, she said.
Boykin said the new coordinator’s job comes at a time when gun violence is on the rise.
Shootings are up 25 percent over this time last year, he said.
So far, more than 2,300 people in Cook County were victims of gun violence this year, including more than 525 deaths, county officials said.
Boykin said gun violence in Illinois cost $9.6 billion annually, or $750 per person.
That figure includes the costs of investigative police work, as well as emergency hospital treatment, and in many cases, lifelong care of victims who suffered debilitating injuries, he said.
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