Englewood community leaders work hard to mend and strengthen relations between residents and police
CHICAGO (CBS) -- After a Chicago Police officer was shot and wounded in West Englewood Wednesday evening, our crew could not help but notice tension between community members and police.
It is a relationship that Englewood leaders say needs to be mended to see true change. As CBS 2's Steven Graves reported Thursday, it is challenging work - and constantly ongoing.
Graves has learned Englewood was recently folded into a citywide initiative to address community-police relations – and such conversations around that very topic were actually going on right as this shooting happened.
"We're on weekly calls, almost, with the 7th District," said Tiffany Lyles-Williams, public safety coordinator for Teamwork Englewood.
And taking on the phone about police-community relations was no different Wednesday evening for Lyles-Williams. At the very moment someone shot an Englewood (7th) District officer at 61st and Paulina streets, she was discussing relationship strategies with other organizations.
This all happened as we observed tensions between residents and police escalating at the crime scene.
"I think that it's people - their own pain; experiencing their own pain and maybe feeling like some of what's been happening to the community at the hands of police, or what they've seen or what they have felt, has now been felt on the other side," Lyles-Williams said, "and it's very unfortunate."
This is why Lyles-Williams oversees the crime reduction program "This Is My Englewood 21:36." The program most recently has been training 13 ambassadors who focus on five key strategies:
• Strategy 1 – Increase community leadership, civic engagement, and collective efficacy;
• Strategy 2 – Create opportunities and empower disadvantaged individuals;
• Strategy 3 – Build better police and community relationships;
• Strategy 4 – Connect individuals to trauma and substance abuse resources;
• Strategy 5 – Activate public spaces (environmental design).
Within the past year, the group as a whole has also been folded into the Chicago Neighborhood Policing Initiative, which was started in 2018.
"To define what healthy and good policing look like across the board; across the entire city," Lyles-Williams said.
The initiative, in collaboration with New York University Law, takes notes from a similar program in the Big Apple with the NYPD.
The program partly mapping out how officers navigate their specific beats to maximize positive community interactions.
Mecole Jordan-McBride leads the Chicago program. She is eight months into working with Teamwork Englewood and 7th District police.
"Understanding that community members are leading the way and saying what we want, and how we need to get there in partnership together," Jordan-McBride said.
"From the resident standpoint and from the Police Department, it's going in a really positive direction," added Lyles-Williams. "We do understand we have a lot of work to do, but we are headed in the right direction."
Right now, there is a big focus on reaching the youth. The local police district has held a basketball event as recently as this week, and community groups say we should expect to see many summer activities to activate blocks in the neighborhood.
