Chicago Police Supt. David Brown attends President Biden's crime summit

ByDiane Pathieu, Rob Elgas, and Alexis McAdams WLS logo
Tuesday, July 13, 2021
Chicago's top cop attends Biden crime summit
President Joe Biden hosted law enforcement leaders from around the country, including CPD Supt. David Brown, to address rising crime.

CHICAGO (WLS) -- President Joe Biden hosted law enforcement leaders from around the country to address rising crime Monday, and Chicago Police Supt. David Brown was in attendance.

The meeting came after 40 people were shot, 11 fatally, in shootings this past weekend.

"He (Biden) expressed a concern regarding a sense of urgency to do something now, and not just to discuss the problem but define solutions that we all could bring to the table that we could do almost immediately," Brown said.

The White House said the group's discussion focused on the Biden administration's strategy to reduce gun crimes and other violent crimes, encouraging state and local governments to use funding from the $350 billion in the COVID relief package to combat the violence. President Biden said that money could be used to hire more police officers, and also to add resources for community violence prevention groups.

RELATED: President Joe Biden offers to send 'strike force' to help Chicago violence crackdown

"While there is no one-size-fits-all approach, we know that there are some things that work. The first of those that work is stemming the flow of firearms used to commit violent crimes," Biden said. "It includes the DOJ creating five new task forces to crack down on illegal gun trafficking."

Brown also met with Lincolnwood native Attorney General Merrick Garland in Washington.

"Attorney General Garland and I had a conversation before the meeting started and had some commitment from him to help out Chicago," Brown said. "And he offered whatever he needed."

Brown's visit to D.C. comes just days after Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot met with President Biden at O'Hare Airport. They had a quick conversation on the tarmac following record-breaking violence. Lightfoot asked for federal help after more than 100 people were shot over the holiday weekend.

CPD supt. grilled about July 4th safety plan during Chicago city council meeting on violence

"I don't think the National Guard is the kind of resource we do need," Lightfoot said. "What we need our people that our trained in local law enforcement and that is folks like ATF, DEA, FBI. Those are the kind of resources that I think will really have maximum impact at this time."

As Chicago sits in the spotlight for the large spike in violence, Brown has been in the hot seat at City Hall. 15th Ward Alderman Raymond Lopez said there are things that need to be fixed before we get help from the president.

"We do not have a foot pursuit policy, a vehicle pursuit policy, our staffing is off, our detectives are not closing cases properly," Lopez said. "To go to the president and say you need help when we have done everything backward at this point seems contradictory to me."

Chicago Pastor Donovan Price said he was cautiously optimistic about the meeting.

"I hope the superintendent knows Chicago well enough at this point to know that there are several levels to this problem, and that people need to be addressed and not just a situation," he said.