Reimagining Our Public Safety Systems |
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In January 2019, the City of Chicago and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office entered into a consent decree mandating effective, lasting reforms at both the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA). Today, with high levels of gun violence, a national reckoning on the role of police, mounting pressure to meet the requirements of the consent decree, and low morale throughout CPD, the urgency to change the status quo of policing in Chicago is greater than ever.
Within our Safety and Justice platform, Civic Consulting Alliance facilitates institutional reform and collaborative transformation to address systemic inequities and make the Chicago region a safe and just place for all. Over the past year, we supported multiple projects - including examples highlighted in the articles below - that advance collaborative efforts to reimagine our current public safety systems and make them more accountable, transparent, and, in turn, effective at ensuring safer communities.
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Advancing Culture Change at the Chicago Police Department |
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Structuring an Approach for Reform Pilot Districts – April - July 2021
In early 2021, Civic Consulting Alliance supported CPD to create a shared vision, purpose, and understanding for the future of reform, as well as an implementation plan for the cultural change initiatives that must accompany policy shifts. Learn more in our 2021 Impact Report.
Operationalizing Reform Pilot Districts – July 2021 - January 2022
With a vision and plan for the reform pilot districts in place, CPD and Civic Consulting Alliance moved to operationalize this approach. First, we worked with CPD to develop a project management structure to guide execution of pilot reforms in District 006 - Gresham (and eventually, Department-wide). Then, we supported three specific initiatives, below, to address pain points in the implementation of the reform pilots.
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Develop a theory of change -
Leadership Development Pathway
Civic Consulting Alliance and CPD created a training series called the Leadership Development Pathway to equip front-line supervisors with the skills needed to drive reforms. We leveraged the private-sector expertise of Civic Consulting Alliance’s Advisory Council, interviewing members specializing in change management and leadership development to inform the training approach.
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Awaiting top-down, CPD-wide roll-out |
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Design mechanisms to enable change -
Supervisor Staffing Optimization
CPD aims to ensure that officers have a consistent day-to-day sergeant (‘Unity of Command’) and that day-to-day sergeants have an appropriate number of officers under their supervision (‘Span of Control’)—two factors that enable sergeants to provide officers with effective support and accountability, and to serve as role models of reform. Civic Consulting Alliance and CPD crafted a new Unity of Command and Span of Control framework, standardized the supervisor scheduling process, developed tools to monitor supervisor staffing data, and - with pro bono support from Slalom - mocked up an app for future-state automation of scheduling.
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Implemented as a pilot in District 006 - Gresham; awaiting district-by-district rollout |
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Ensure Chicagoans feel the change -
Community Policing Merger
The consent decree emphasizes community policing—the use of collaborative partnerships between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve—as a key mechanism for change. CPD’s Office of Community Policing (OCP) currently runs two distinct community policing programs: Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS) and the Neighborhood Policing Initiative (NPI). These programs operate separately, creating siloes and redundancies that prevent OCP from most effectively engaging and supporting communities. Civic Consulting Alliance created a roadmap – including recommendations and an implementation timeline – to guide CPD’s merger of the two programs.
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Awaiting district-by-district roll-out, beginning with pilot Districts 004, 006, and 007 |
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Building an Internal Reform Communications Strategy – April 2022 - ongoing
While the initiatives above are underway, Civic Consulting Alliance and our pro bono partner Zeno Group recently launched an audit of CPD’s internal communications to ensure that the purpose and practicalities of consent decree reforms are communicated to all CPD members deliberately and thoughtfully. This project will equip CPD with a messaging framework, engagement strategy, and implementation plan to drive internal communications, and to further strengthen Department-wide understanding of and support for reforms.
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Looking Forward
In the months ahead, CPD will continue to pilot this holistic reform approach in District 006 and beyond, with the goal of expanding Department-wide within the next year. While implementing consent decree reforms across CPD is an enormous change-management effort, we are optimistic that by complementing core reforms with the culture change initiatives above, CPD is on the path to becoming a more just institution that in turn more effectively serves Chicago communities.
“The Chicago Police Department is committed to achieving the policy, operational, and cultural changes that are necessary for true institutional reform. Civic Consulting Alliance is invaluable to this work, pulling in change management best practices from the private sector and an external, strategic perspective that helps to accelerate our progress.”
- Robert Boik, Executive Director, Constitutional Policing and Reform, Chicago Police Department
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Standing Up the Community Commission for
Public Safety and Accountability
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In July 2021, Chicago’s City Council passed the Empowering Communities for Public Safety (ECPS) ordinance. This landmark ordinance creates two bodies: a new city agency called the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA), with power to advance systemic reform, and District Councils, which will be elected in each police district and work to improve policing and public safety in the district. The Commission and District Councils will give community members powerful new tools to provide oversight of the Chicago Police Department (CPD), COPA (Civilian Office of Police Accountability), and the Police Board, while promoting meaningful community engagement to build and implement public safety solutions. Among its many duties, the citywide commission will play a central role in selecting and removing the CPD Superintendent, COPA Chief Administrator, and Police Board members; setting police department policy; establishing annual goals and evaluating progress for CPD, COPA, and the Police Board; and promoting community engagement and transparency.
In February 2023, Chicago voters will have the opportunity to elect three District Council members in each of the city’s 22 police districts. Elected District Council members will in turn nominate fourteen people (who do not serve on the district council), the Mayor will select and the City Council will confirm seven of the fourteen nominees to serve on the Commission. Prior to the first district council election in 2023, the CCPSA will operate with interim commissioners, nominated by the City Council and chosen by the Mayor following a public application process.
The CCPSA’s Executive Director, Adam Gross, will manage the team that supports the work of the Commission and District Councils, and will serve as the liaison between the CCPSA, the agencies and departments it oversees, the City Council, the Mayor’s Office, and the consent decree monitor.
Given our experience in organizational design and strategy development, the CCPSA called upon Civic Consulting Alliance to support Executive Director Gross in standing up this new agency. With a generous project-specific grant from the Polk Bros. Foundation, we provided critical capacity and expertise to accelerate the CCPSA, as described below.
Phase 1: February – April 2022
With pro bono support from Protiviti, we worked with Executive Director Gross to develop the operational structures the CCPSA needs to provide effective and meaningful community oversight of the police and police accountability agencies. Specifically, we:
- Outlined a “launch toolkit” of operational considerations to start a new government agency;
- Developed tools to help the CCPSA establish its guiding mission, vision, and goals;
- Identified, mapped, and sequenced potential priorities for the CCPSA to accomplish in its first year; and
- Clarified its organizational structure, including roles, responsibilities, and a management structure.
Phase 2: April – August 2022
With the CCPSA’s foundation and operational structures in place, we began to support Executive Director Gross in preparing to launch the interim commission in the summer or fall of 2022. Supported by the pro bono work of an undergraduate fellow from Northwestern University, Civic Consulting Alliance:
- Developed draft commission policies and processes, such as bylaws and meeting procedures;
- Created an onboarding plan for the interim commissioners and developed training materials; and
- Drafted a meeting plan to guide the interim commission through fall 2022, including topics and speaker suggestions.
As a result of this foundational work, the CCPSA is equipped with the structure and resources needed to immediately begin working toward its goals to improve policing, increase resident engagement, build greater trust between the police and Chicago residents, strengthen accountability, and make the city safer and more just. Civic Consulting Alliance anticipates a continued partnership to support the CCPSA, potentially by building out policies and procedures to support one of the agency’s key functions laid out in the ECPS ordinance.
“Building a new City department from scratch is an extraordinary undertaking and Civic Consulting Alliance (CCA) is an extraordinary partner. The launch toolkit, onboarding plan, and training materials that CCA developed will be crucial for ensuring that commissioners have the knowledge and information that they need to effectively carry out their duties starting on day one. CCA has built an incredibly strong foundation for the Community Commission’s success.”
– Adam Gross, Executive Director, Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability
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Welcoming New Board Member: Noemie Tilghman |
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Civic Consulting Alliance is pleased to welcome Noemie Tilghman to our Board! |
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Noemie Tilghman is the US OG&C consulting leader and principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP. Noemie specializes in multi-functional, global service strategy and operating model design programs which drive large-scale cost reduction, process efficiency and effectiveness improvements. Additionally, she also serves as the go-to-market leader for Deloitte’s proprietary Visual Decision Xccelerator (VDXTM) tool.
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Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities
Executive Director Job Posting
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Civic Consulting Alliance's long-time client, the Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities (PSPC), has collaboratively funded over $110M since 2017 to address the crisis of gun violence in Chicago. PSPC has launched the hiring process for its first Executive Director, who will be critical to increasing PSPC’s impact. Learn more and apply here.
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Civic Consulting Alliance is excited to introduce four new staff members! In June we welcomed Communications Senior Associate Nikki Way and Development Associate DJ Williams. In July we welcomed Analysts Natalie Nieves and Kaylin Davis. We are thrilled to have these stellar individuals on our team!
We're Hiring!
Civic Consulting Alliance is searching for a Development Director to fully implement and scale our Major Gifts Initiative. Learn more and apply here.
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Thank you to our funders! |
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Civic Consulting Alliance is grateful for the critical support of all of our funders. Since our last newsletter, we were thrilled to receive philanthropic commitments from the following corporations and foundations: |
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Support to achieve our Education platform vision - to advance high quality education and equitable access to opportunity for all Chicago students to prepare them for lifelong success and fulfillment. |
Partial support of all-staff racial equity training. |
Support to stand up the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, Chicago's first civilian-led commission to oversee the Chicago Police Department. |
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General Operating Funders |
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Civic Consulting Alliance is grateful to our general operating funders, whose support empowers us to maintain our flexible and responsive capacity to get big things done. |
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