Durbin pushes for more violence intervention programs as Chicago’s crime rates decline

Hours after President Donald Trump pulled back on sending National Guard troops to Chicago to quell violent crime, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin joined violence prevention leaders Friday in Little Village to tout the organizations’ efforts that some credit for the city’s plummeting crime rates.

“If we work together, we can reduce crime. That is critical for the lives that will be affected and for the reputation of this city,” said Durbin, D-Ill.

He joined state Sen. Celina Villanueva, D-Chicago, to speak with New Life Church pastor Matt DeMateo and Christa Hamilton, the president and CEO of the social services organization UCAN about how their work with violence interruptors have led to a drop in shootings and homicides in their communities.

From June through August, Chicago recorded the fewest homicides in 60 years during that three-month span, and overall violent crime has remained near its lowest point in at least four decades, WBEZ previously reported.

In the police district that primarily serves Little Village, shootings and homicides have dropped by about 50% this year compared to the same point last year, according to Chicago police data.

“Lives are being turned around through these programs. Sadly, the budgets for these programs in Washington are being cut by the same president who wants to put troops on the street. Doesn’t make sense. Let us invest in things that work,” Durbin said.

DeMateo partially credits the drop to his group’s street outreach program, which involves more than 2,000 violence prevention workers canvassing the neighborhood and responding to incidents to mediate conflicts.

He rejects the president’s threats to deploy troops to Chicago, which Trump said Friday “he would have preferred” instead of his pivot to sending troops to Memphis.

“The plan is working. We need investment in those programs and investment in peace, not investment in the Department of War and the deployment of federal troops,” DeMateo said, referring to Trump’s recent executive order renaming the U.S. Department of Defense.

Federal funding for violence intervention programs like DeMateo’s and Hamilton’s have been slashed this year, and DOJ grants for those programs have been canceled under Trump’s administration.

“We need consistency in this type of funding because every single moment where we lose someone that is doing the work — a case manager, somebody that’s working with the young people in the neighborhoods — it’s just a lost opportunity to be able to provide the support that’s needed for our young people,” Villanueva said.

Hamilton, a South Side native who has lost loved ones and clients to gun violence, said she’s been a victim of property crimes and had “bullets outside my windows.”

She represents 175 community violence interventionists who work daily to respond to incidents, provide youth mentoring and other outreach services, and who she also credited for helping Chicago’s violent crime numbers to decrease.

“[Community violence intervention] is working, we see the return on our investment, we need to continue an approach that is working,” Hamilton said. “Obviously, we all want a safer Chicago, and that is what me and my colleagues are working day and night to create.”