CHICAGO — Today, Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot, the Mayor’s Office of Public Safety (MOPS), and the Community Safety Coordination Center (CSCC) released the One Year Assessment of the City of Chicago’s ‘Our City, Our Safety’ Comprehensive Violence Reduction plan (OCOS).  

After its release in September 2020, Mayor Lightfoot committed to providing regular reports on the progress of the public safety strategies and initiatives to sustainably reduce violence over the next three years, as outlined in the OCOS report. This One Year Assessment examines the state of violence in Chicago in the year-and-a-half timeframe since the OCOS report was first published by providing an assessment of public safety-related measures, which are indicative of the strategic initiatives embedded within the five OCOS pillars.  

"As this report shows, treating violence like the public health crisis that it is allows us to better target its root causes," said Mayor Lightfoot. "Thanks to the CSCC, we have also been able to build upon the pillars outlined in OCOS and take a whole-of-government approach to making our communities safer and mitigating the long-standing effects that violence has on community members. Though I am proud of the progress we have made, we will not stop working until all residents, no matter where they live in Chicago, feel protected against harm or danger." 

Through OCOS’s comprehensive framework, the City has worked to address violence as a preventable public health crisis, which can be treated through deliberate, coordinated, and sustained efforts, acknowledging that we must focus on individuals, communities, and systems collectively to reduce violence. This public health approach represents a significant shift from a traditional criminal suppression model for addressing violence toward a more holistic prevention-based approach.  

Building upon the five pillars outlined in OCOS, the CSCC was established in August 2021 to coordinate a comprehensive approach to addressing the root causes of community violence by implementing near- and long-term strategies to rebuild the physical environment, create a thriving economy, and support residents in addressing their individual and family needs. 

"The representatives of the CSCC are working hard every day to ensure that the strategies identified in the Our City, Our Safety plan are implemented in a community-driven way and backed by evidence," said Tamara Mahal, CSCC Chief Coordination Officer. "While there is still much work to do to address and reduce ongoing violence, we believe we're laying the foundation to ensure sustainable reductions in the future." 

All indicators in this assessment report were part of the original OCOS plan. The Public Safety Research Advisory Council, compromised of university experts in violence reduction, helped guide the statistical analysis and reviewed the draft.   

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