Larry Snelling, Chicago's top cop, marks one year as superintendent

CHICAGO (CBS) – In September 2023, Larry Snelling received unanimous support in the City Council, and became Chicago's new police superintendent.

Snelling has been with CPD since 1992 when he was hired as a patrol officer in Englewood, the very same Chicago community where he attended high school.

From day one as superintendent, Snelling set two top priorities—use technology to solve crimes and improve officers' mental health and wellbeing.

The DePaul University graduate was also determined to tackle violence by boosting morale within the department, and connecting with community members.

So 12 months later, how has he done on the goals he set for himself and CPD?

In a recent one-on-one interview, Snelling discussed many continuing challenges, a few victories, and some uplifting moments he and the department have experienced during his year at the top.

One big victory

The four-day Democratic National Convention (DNC) that just wrapped up Aug. 20 is one major victory Supt. Snelling is cheering.

The protests and marches were held without the feared chaos. Instead, the convention ended with just a few injuries among protestors as well as police and 74 arrests.

"Hopefully, looking at the way our officers responded during the DNC, people get a chance to see how effective police officers can be in protecting a city, protecting the reputation of a city," Snelling said.

Mixed bag

Tackling crime was another priority on the superintendent's first-day to-do list, and it remains so to this day.

"Our robbery mission team is dealing with the robberies that we've seen on a daily basis, multiple robberies, robbery sprees and we have robbery crews out there," Snelling said. "Right now, we're down nearly 800 robberies over a two month period. So we're seeing a decrease in robberies. We're also seeing the decrease in vehicular hijackers. Now, what I will say is this, we still have work to do."

CPD data shows there is more work to do especially when it comes to burglaries, aggravated assaults and aggravated batteries—which are all up year over year.

Supt. Snelling said he plans to take the same approach to tackle the more than 5,500 burglaries so far this year.

"When we can break up the crews and the repeat offenders, we can reduce that number," he said.

One tech tool he no longer has when it comes to responding to shootings is the gunshot detection system ShotSpotter. Earlier this week, the system went offline.

Another day-one priority fulfilled to some degree was looking out for officers and their wellbeing—especially during the DNC. Many officers gave up days off to protect the city and those attending the convention.

The superintendent was out there every day as well.

"If I expect officers to go out and make those sacrifices, I have to be willing to do the work and make those sacrifices with them," he said. "It wasn't just me—my entire command staff team, they were out there with the officers. And we made certain that we were highly visible, we were interactive. We were making sure that our officers were following the training that we provided."

When it comes to sworn officers, the department is not in much better shape than when Snelling got the top job.

According to CPD, as of Sept. 24, 2024, there were 11,585 current sworn officers on staff, and 1,156 vacancies. This serious shortage is something that Snelling hears about frequently from residents who live in neighborhoods where crime happens more often, and police show up less often.

"I'm not going to tell you that I don't hear grievances coming from the community when it comes to the number of police officers or how often police officers are responding. Those are things that we're working on," he said, "and we are focused on those beats where we see the most gang violence."

Supt. Snelling says he is listening and has a plan to respond.

"We're currently putting a workforce allocation study in place to help us out with how we're going to deploy officers," Snelling said.

He also has a plan to use the positive DNC outcome as part of a public relations campaign to get more people interested in wearing the badge.

"There are things within our department that we need to showcase that we haven't," Snelling said. "The great things that officers have done and do every single day outweigh the bad things on a daily basis."

The future

So, what does the future hold for Supt. Snelling as he leads the department through an ongoing staffing shortage, mixed news on crime numbers, and continued pushback from some people in the community?

"What we're seeing here right now will not be fixed overnight," Snelling said.

He is looking to focus more on preventing crime to help improve safety.

"Where we're not focusing, and this is my focus, is to focus on the youth," Snelling said. "We have got to work on the very young, I'm talking from birth to 5, 6, 7 years old because what we're seeing is a cycle." 

It is a cycle Snelling says he hopes to break.

"It's a very rewarding job when you know that you've helped someone; you know that you've made your city safer," Snelling said.