Chicago's 24th District More Violent than 23rd District

After the recent shooting in front of Gigio's pizza in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood, I thought that Tuesday night's 7:00 pm CAPS Beat 2311 meeting would be packed with concerned citizens. It wasn't. I counted 19 local residents in attendance. There were nine CPD officers there. The meeting, held as usual in part of the Truman College cafeteria, was uneventful. I did learn a few things, however. Aggrevated batteries in the 23rd District (map), we were told, are down by 33 percent from a year ago. "Thats 12 months to today," said Officer Tom Walsh, a CPD liaison to area businesses. "Our number one priority is to curb aggrevated battery." (Source: Lake View Citizens' Council, Regular Meeting of the Board of Directors, Thursday, August 3, 2006) Gang "hot spots" were discussed, too, and what was said surprised. There two gang hot spots in the 23rd District, which includes Uptown. They are the 4500 block of N. Magnolia and the 900 block of W. Wilson. However, we were told that there are five hot spots in the 24th District (map), which is primarily (east) Rogers Park. Is the 24th District more violent that the 23rd? Yes, according to Officer Walsh and his colleagues. The city has two levels (Level One and Level Two) with which it categorizes polices district violence. Level Two is considered more violent than Level One. Both the 23rd and 24th districts are within Area Three. The 23rd District is a Level One. The 24th District is the only Level Two in Area Three. Most of the rest of the city is Level One. The Level One and Level Two designations determine how police manpower is concentrated and deployed to "where there is the greatest probability of violent crimes." "Rogers Park has about twice as much violent crime as Uptown," said one of the officers on the evening's panel. Residents of the 49th Ward might want to point this out to Alderman Moore the next time he brags about low crime in Rogers Park. RELATED: Find Your District, Beat and Community Chicago Police Announce Plan to Deploy Additional Officers in Preparation for Upcoming Summer Violence Interactive Map of Crime Incidents in Chicago CopWatch Pocket Guide CommieBama Hats and More Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Follow ChiNewsBench on Twitter