Views from the Streets (Studies in Transgression) by Roberto Aspholm

Author:Roberto Aspholm [Aspholm, Roberto & Aspholm, Roberto]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780231187732
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2020-02-04T07:00:00+00:00

One additional component of the CPD’s focused deterrence strategy that warrants brief discussion is its Strategic Subjects List (SSL), which the department initially compiled in 2012. The SSL is a sort of modernized version of a traditional gang database that uses an algorithm based on social network analysis and eight risk factors to create a “heat list” of individuals at high risk for being a victim or perpetrator of gun violence. Individuals on the list are assigned scores of 1–500 based on their ostensible level of risk and are ranked accordingly; police consider those with scores over 250 as warranting heightened attention. The list has been used to identify individuals and gangs for call-ins as well as what the CPD calls “custom notifications” in which police show up at the homes of individuals on the list to deliver personalized deterrence messages. The SSL has come under fire from a number of corners for a wide variety of reasons, including criticisms related to accuracy, transparency, profiling and harassment, purpose, predictive power, and efficacy.25 While CPD superintendent Eddie Johnson claims that 1,400 individuals are responsible for driving gun violence in Chicago, for example, the SSL has nearly 400,000 entries. Of these, more than 287,000, or 72 percent, have scores above the 250 threshold that classifies them as high-risk and meriting enhanced police scrutiny. Moreover, more than half of all black men in their twenties in Chicago are on the list, and nearly one-third of all those listed have never even been arrested or shot, leading one critic to pointedly ask, “How strategic is the Strategic Subjects List, really?”26 An early evaluation of the SSL showed no effect on citywide homicide rates nor any predictive power related to gunshot victimization.27

The CPD nevertheless appears firmly committed to focused deterrence, even following Garry McCarthy’s unceremonious ouster from the department in November 2015, precipitated by public outrage over video footage showing the groundless police execution of black teenager Laquan McDonald.28 The CPD’s “Gang Violence Reduction Strategy” directive, issued on the final day of 2015, prominently features focused deterrence as well as numerous references to call-ins and the SSL. Another directive related to the SSL specifically was released in July 2016.29 Amazingly, then, Chicago’s post-2015 surge in homicide has occurred while focused deterrence remained a major official policy priority of the city’s police department.

So much for focused deterrence in Chicago.

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