Chicago police putting more focus on gang activity: 'We're going to use every resource'

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago police are doubling down on their efforts targeting gangs in the city. The announcement comes as CPD Superintendent David Brown said gangs are driving the increase in violent crime across the city.

"We have always focused on gangs broadly. This is precision, using a scalpel," he said.

Brown said the department will be relying on data to deploy their community safety team to support other units, including those focused on homicides, carjackings and drugs.

CPD's top cop formed the community safety team more than a year ago, placing the unit on the south and west sides.

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"It's high time we said gangs are a significant scourge to the safety of our neighborhoods and we're going to use every resource we have to take these criminal networks down," he said.

The superintendent said CPD is also planning to replace their controversial gang database with a new one. It will still include names of members, which Brown said will help them dismantle gangs.

"The next few weeks, we hope to have the criminal enterprise information system online and working to inform us as we deploy, as we investigate gangs and other criminal networks," he said.

Brown said the names on the gang database list have been vetted but they are still working on a process for people to have their names removed if they were wrongly included.