With a combination of technology and extra resources. In July 2017, the U.S Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives formed the Chicago Crime Gun Strike Force. It consists of ATF agents, Chicago police officers and members of the Illinois State Police and the Illinois Department of Corrections. An additional 20 ATF agents were dispatched last year to Chicago, and ATF firearm arrests citywide have increased by nearly 25 percent since then. Gun seizures have jumped by almost 46 percent, according to the bureau. Five new federal prosecutors were recently assigned to a gun crimes team. In fiscal year 2018, 197 people were charged with federal gun offenses — the highest annual count in more than a decade, the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago reported.
On the technology side, police in 12 districts are using ShotSpotter, a sophisticated system of electronic monitoring to detect gunshots and alert officers to the location within 30 to 45 seconds. It collects data that helps define the scope of the gunfire and gives officers a lead in responding, compared with 911 calls. The city has 30,000 cameras and when a ShotSpotter notification is received, the closest cameras to the location gather activity within their range.
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A pedestrian walks past a "DEMAND JUSTICE" sign on a boarded-up storefront on the South Side of Chicago, part of the 6th Police District where officers marked a milestone this fall: They recovered their 1,000th firearm this year. The community is home to neat bungalows, apartment buildings and a modest business strip as well as weed-filled lots, abandoned buildings and other signs of despair. Illegal guns are a major problem in the area; by December police had recovered more than 1,200 firearms. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
