Brandon Johnson, Paul Vallas square off on public safety, violence intervention programs
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Tuesday marked exactly three weeks until the Chicago mayoral election.
On Tuesday evening, finalists Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas went head-to-head at the UIC Forum, 1213 S. Halsted St., to share their positions on public safety.
As CBS 2 Political Investigator Dana Kozlov reported, crime is arguably – and some would even say indisputably – the number one issue in the mayoral runoff. Thus, it was no surprise that more than 1,000 people may have attended the public safety debate on Tuesday.
Dozens of organizations sponsored the debate or signed on as partners. All of them have ties to CVI, or community violence intervention, programs.
The questions by moderators Laura Washington and Eric Zorn were all asked through the lens of how the candidates' public safety plans would include community violence intervention in some way.
The moderators did their best to push for specifics, and covered many aspects of policing. But one question asked of both the candidates was whether they would at least maintain the current $167 million funding level for violence intervention programs – even after COVID money runs out in a few years.
"We're going to increase it," Johnson said. "We want to make sure that the people who are actually closest to the pain get to actually help develop and solve the crisis in our community."
"We need to allow the community to identify the most effective programs, and we need to fund those programs – not for one year, but we need to fund them on a sustainable basis," Vallas said.
There were moments of contention between the two candidates at times.
Vallas addressed his comments about "taking the handcuffs off" police – saying he has always said he intends to work within the federal CPD consent decree, which mandates reforms in several areas including use of force, community policing, accountability, recruitment, and training.
"What I have talked about over and over again in columns, et cetera, is to restore proactive policing – and proactive policing that is consistent with the consent decree – and I've said that over and over again," Vallas said. "Proactive policing is not taking the handcuffs off."
Meanwhile, Johnson was asked about his past statement that defunding the police was "an actual, real political goal."
"I said it was a political goal," Johnson said. "I never said it was mine."
"So that's never been your goal," moderator Washington said. "I'm just trying to be clear – that's never been your goal.
"Listen – I'm answering the question, Laura, because I get how they're trying to paint me," Johnson said.
The crowd seemed friendlier to what Johnson had to say. This was not a surprise, given that Johnson is running on a more progressive platform that calls for more investment in programs and services – especially for people in underserved communities.
Vallas' public safety plan is really thus far honed on policing specifics, and how more effectively to police the streets of Chicago.
