North Lawndale Residents Encouraged By Heightened Police Presence
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Most of us have heard of "community policing," the strategy of having more interaction between police officers and the people living and working in the neighborhoods they patrol. This weekend, CBS 2 got an up close look at how that strategy is working on a block in North Lawndale.
CBS 2's Main Martinez was allowed to ride along with Police Supt. Garry McCarthy on patrol in the West Side community.
McCarthy scanned car after car along the stretch of city streets just south of the Eisenhower Expressway, which is often referred to as the "Heroin Highway," because it is considered a major drug trafficking route between Chicago and the western suburbs.
The superintendent was looking for anything that looked out of place. That's because, in late June, a joint effort between federal and local law enforcement netted more than 30 arrests, and took down a drug ring considered the "worst of the worst" on the West Side.
The 3600 block of West Grenshaw Street is now blocked off by police barricades, and uniformed officers stand on the corners drug dealers and gang members used to claim.
The officers don't just stand around. They talk and interact with everyone on the block, and those living on the block talk to them.
"You have to get to know people," McCarthy said.
Fourteen-year-old Deondre Dorsey and his friends said it's like a whole new world for them.
"Before the cops was out here, it was all bad out here. It was all drugs through the hallways," Deondre said. "They would have shootouts, and everything around here. So when they do shootouts, I couldn't even go in my back yard."
"It feels bad, because I never got to really do anything since eight years I've been living here," he added.
Deondre said just being able to play ball in the street is an amazing gift.
"I feel safer now that I can walk up and down the street," he said.
North Lawndale resident Sandy Jones said she loves that kids can play on the corner now.
"These two years I've been here, I haven't seen the kids play basketball and get exercise like this," she said.
Jones said it sends a clear message to the criminals that once kept many in her neighborhood inside their homes.
"Get out of this neighborhood, and do something constructive with themselves," she said.
McCarthy said it's also about making a commitment to the people in the neighborhood and across the city.
"We want people to understand that we're not going to let this block go back to what it was before," he said.
A spokesperson for the Police Department said the increased police presence in that neighborhood would continue indefinitely until the community, the District, and the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy team all have confidence it can be revitalized, and the drug dealers won't reclaim it.