Gun Teams Out in Force
The Chicago Police Department (CPD) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have jointly created a Gun Team to work as a component of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) in an effort to decrease the number of violent crimes involving firearms. When PSN first launched the gun teams, the gun units were only operating in the CPD's 11th and 15th districts, which covers approximately 10 square miles of the city. PSN has now expanded its gun units to operate in the 7th and 9th districts.
One hundred and thirty known street gangs exist in the greater Chicago metropolitan area. The CPD estimates that street gangs comprise more than 50 percent of Chicago's crime problem. Almost all of Chicago's gangs use firearms to protect their drug trafficking, to enforce market shares and to discipline their own members.
The goal of the Gun Team is to remove career criminals and gun suppliers.The Gun Team will be an important means of enforcing PSN's objective of ridding the streets of firearms and their accompanying violence.
The Gun Units each consist of six members, including one ATF special agent. District personnel involved in an incident where a firearm is recovered will receive assistance from an available Gun Unit. This measure will ensure that reports contain all necessary information for federal prosecution. Gun Units will also respond to weapon turn-ins, found firearms and arrests for offenses involving the use of a firearm where the firearm was not found.