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My freind text me this morning to tell me I had the front page of the Wall Street Journal. You can’t beat that… too bad the subject is so grim.

Chicago Dials Back on 911 Responses

By JACK NICAS

CHICAGO—Police here stopped physically responding to some 911 calls for non-life-threatening issues this week so officers can focus on stemming the city’s rising homicide rate, a strategy that other big cities have implemented with sometimes controversial results.

Under the new policy, dispatchers will route 911 calls reporting non-criminal complaints or crimes in which no one is in imminent danger, such as some car thefts and simple assaults, to desk officers who will fill out police reports by phone. The new policy prohibits callers from insisting an officer be sent to the scene, as was allowed before.

The Chicago Police Department says it now expects to handle about 151,000 police reports by telephone this year, or about 30% of their total, roughly twice as many as last year. The department estimates the new approach will free the equivalent of 44 officers a day in a force of roughly 12,000 officers… Read more

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Its not every day that an assignment teaches you something about your own childhood.

When I was 7 years old my father, who shared my name, passed away and when I looked down today, I saw a boy, Ronnie Chambers Jr., who is about he same age as I was back then, sitting at my feet with RIP carved in the back of his hair. He was there mourning the loss of his father, who also shared the same name.
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Ronnie Chambers was shot in the head on January 26th, 2013. His mother Shirley Chambers, has lost all four of her children to gun violence.
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Seeing Ronnie Jr. today caused me to choke up a little, thinking about the parallels between his life and mine. Seeing him move about the church seemingly unaware of the gravity of the situation, explained to me in that moment why all I can recall about my fathers funeral was sitting in my uncles lap during the service and a photo of my father in his casket my mother used to keep in the glove box of her car.
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For me, as significant as that day was, to a child it wasn’t much different than many other church experiences we have while navigating through the adult world. The situation today was already emotional for me having met Ms. Chambers last week during an interview. Looking her in the eye and saying my goodbyes, I was left speechless, knowing there was nothing I could do to comfort her in her bereavement, other than a long look of solace and my silence.
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The post One of life’s lessons: Chicago’s violent legacy gets personal appeared first on Chicago Photographer & Director of Photography.