What role do Aldermanic offices play in Public Safety?
Aldermanic offices can help you with a lot! We’re the communication bridge between you and the Chicago Police Department, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, your local Chambers of Commerce and local businesses, COPA, and more. We help keep neighbors informed on recent crime incidents and statistics, connect residents to public safety events and organizations, pass legislation and vote on CPD’s annual budget, utilize our $1.5 million Menu Budget to create infrastructure with public safety in mind, and more.
You and Your Neighbors
Calling 911
In order to support the efforts of our office and the 19th District Police, we need you–the eyes and ears of our community–to call 911 and report suspicious activity to the 19th District CAPS office.
Why are calls to 911 (or calls for service) important?
Each Police District throughout the city must provide data-based evidence as to why they should increase police presence or ask for tactical or special unit enforcement within a particular area. Calls for service are the most important indicator that there is a growing public safety issue that needs special attention. So, even if you do not witness police coming immediately to respond to your call, ultimately these calls for service lead to a greater, sustained police presence.
How to call 911
- Be as descriptive as possible.
- Address: give the exact address if you know it.
- Description of the people involved; race, sex, age, approximate height, weight, description, and color of clothing; the more information, the better.
- Any weapon that can be seen.
- If you do not want your name given to responding police units, be sure to inform the call taker. There is a box that the call taker will activate to ensure you remain anonymous.
- Calls for service are dispatched based on priority. Any situation that represents an immediate threat to life, bodily injury, or major property damage is priority 1; everything below that is either categorized as priority 2 or 3 and will be dispatched according to availability.
Attend your CAPS Beat meetings!
Don’t know how to find your beat? You can visit your Alderman’s website to find out.
What happens at Beat Meetings
Beat meetings are facilitated by the CAPS office and will have beat officers assigned to your neighborhood to answer your questions, comments, and concerns. They will also go over a review of incidents that have occurred within the past two months, and an overview of crime statistics. Attendees can provide officers with more detail about what they’re observing to help officers address a chronic issue, or they can speak to an officer after the meeting to provide more detail.
Join us at our community meetings!
Keep informed by subscribing to your local Alderman’s newsletter for upcoming meetings and events. You can also find other updates such as: RPM construction, crime updates, community events, etc. that are happening in your ward.
To sign up for beat meetings please email CAPS.019District@chicagopolice.org
In this section, you will find information regarding public safety in the 44th Ward.