The first plan of attack is to bring in 50 additional federal agents to help assist the Chicago Police Department. The Department of Justice will help to expand the violence reduction initiative, which the mayor and superintendents say has already reduced the homicide rate in Englewood by 44 percent.
A program, which focuses on getting arrests and uses heavy beat patrols, will expand to at least two other districts.
"The attorney general and his staff have agreed to add resources to the city of Chicago to back up our efforts in both the 3rd District and... the 10th District to insure that we have what we need to have to see the type of results we have seen in Englewood and Garfield," said Emanuel.
"We are going to be employing the strategy of working on the worst of the worst, the two degrees of separation, which we have explained. It is a social networking that has to do with the people who are most likely to be involved in homicide," said Supt. Garry McCarthy.
Five people were shot on the South Side early Friday in one drive-by incident alone at 60th and Indiana. One of the victims was critically wounded.
Police say five men were struck by heavy gunfire from a white vehicle in Washington Park around 1 a.m. One man is in critical condition and four others in stable condition with injuries to their hands and feet. All of the victims are in their 20s.
Nearby in Englewood, a 15-year-old was shot; he is expected to recover.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy announced an expansion of their violence reduction initiative, which they say is working in certain neighborhoods, like Englewood and Garfield Park. Police say that homicides are down 29 percent.
Overall, eight victims were injured in gunfire overnight. The city is battling a high murder rate. There have been almost 90 more murders this year already than all of last year.
