The Chicago Crime Commission is an independent,

non-partisan Nonpartisanship, also known as nonpartisanism, is a lack of affiliation with a political party and a lack of political bias. While an ''Oxford English Dictionary'' definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., ...

civic Civic is something related to a city or municipality. It also can refer to multiple other things: Civic or CIVIC can also refer to: General *Honda Civic, a car produced by the Honda Motor Co. *Civics, the science of comparative government * Civic ...

watchdog Watchdog or watch dog may refer to: Animals *Guard dog, a dog that barks to alert its owners of an intruder's presence * Portuguese Watchdog, Cão de Castro Laboreiro, a dog breed * Moscow Watchdog, a breed of dog that was bred in the Soviet U ...

organization of business leaders dedicated to educating the public about the dangers of organized criminal activity, especially

organized crime Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...

street gangs A gang is a group or society of associates, friends, or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collecti ...

and the tools of their trade:

drugs A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalation, injection, smoking, ingestio ...

guns A gun is a device that propels a projectile using pressure or explosive force. The projectiles are typically solid, but can also be pressurized liquid (e.g. in water guns or cannons), or gas (e.g. light-gas gun). Solid projectiles may be ...

, public corruption,

money laundering Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...

identity theft Identity theft, identity piracy or identity infringement occurs when someone uses another's personal identifying information, like their name, identifying number, or credit card number, without their permission, to commit fraud or other crimes. ...

and

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of Value (economics), value ("the stakes") on a Event (probability theory), random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy (ga ...

, founded in 1919. The

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

, the judicial system,

politicians A politician is a person who participates in policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles or duties tha ...

, prosecutors and

citizens Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationality; ...

rely on the Chicago Crime Commission to provide advice on crime issues and to communicate vital information to the public.

Summary

Founded just before

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

in the Roaring '20s, local businessmen formed the Chicago Crime Commission to address the lawlessness prevalent in Chicago during the time. The businessmen who founded the crime commission did not think of themselves as a reform organization but saw crime as business work to which they applied business methods. The backlog of

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

cases awaiting trial was reduced, while the public corruption and organized criminal activities of the Chicago Outfit were exposed. In 1930, the Commission first brought about the Public Enemies list, with

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

gangster

Al Capone Alphonse Gabriel Capone ( ; ; January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nickname "Scarface", was an American organized crime, gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-foun ...

as "Public Enemy Number One." The idea of such a list was co-opted by the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

as the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. Today, the Commission's primary role is to ensure that business,

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

and law enforcement work together to address problems caused by organized criminal enterprises by: * Publishing ''The Gang Book'', a training tool for

law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of the government or other social institutions who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by investigating, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms gove ...

on adult Chicago area gangs which includes full color photographs of the "leaders" of "prominent" street gangs as well as their commonly identifiable characteristics (i.e., graffiti and markings, clothing, tattoos, and hand signs or "sets"); * Publishing ''Friend and Foe'', described as "an exhibit of visual materials that highlight some aspects" of the "history of crime, citizen action, and

" (Forward, p. iii). The work provides "insight into the " Chicago Outfit", public corruption, street gangs, drugs, and the evolution of crime fighting"; * Offering tools for

to report public corruption and

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

anonymously to the right law enforcement agency through an interactive website and hotline; * Promoting

Project Safe Neighborhoods Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) is a national initiative by the United States Department of Justice with the help of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to reduce gun violence in the United States. The project's aim is to ...

(PSN), a "promising" comprehensive antiviolence initiative. In their national evaluation, McGarrell and colleagues (2010) found cities who implemented PSN experienced an average 4.1 percent decline in violent crime, while non-PSN cities experienced a 0.9 percent decline; * Advising statewide and local

partnerships A partnership is an agreement where parties agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments or combinations. Organizations m ...

on how to improve communications to prevent and respond to everyday

crimes In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...

and organized criminal activities; * Conducting

research Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to ...

and providing

analysis Analysis (: analyses) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (38 ...

on crime issues, specializing in those businesses associated with organized criminal activity; and * Offering a comprehensive organized crime library.

Highlights

* The Chicago Crime Commission spearheaded educating Illinois citizens on the dangers of a government-owned casino as the Illinois Governor and the

Illinois General Assembly The Illinois General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. state of Illinois. It has two chambers, the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate. The General Assembly was created by the first state constitution adopted in ...

sought to pass

legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolling, enacting, or promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred ...

creating a Chicago-owned casino, increasing the total number of

casino A casino is a facility for gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, conce ...

s, allowing slot machines at the racetracks and massively expanding

throughout

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. * The Commission's then President, James W. Wagner, testified as an

expert witness An expert witness, particularly in common law countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, is a person whose opinion by virtue of education, training, certification, skills or experience, is accepted by the judge as ...

in the federal government's 2007

prosecution A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in Civil law (legal system), civil law. The prosecution is the ...

of Chicago organized crime in the case known as the "Family Secrets" trial. * The Commission monitors the federal prosecutions of Illinois' alleged pay-to-play political insiders and the general public corruption allegations levied against government officials throughout

, including the trials involving former

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

George H. Ryan, his former Chief-of-Staff, Scott Fawell and current Chicago businessman Antoin Rezko.

Publications and archives

Owning one of the oldest and most complete

historical History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

archives An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials, in any medium, or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organ ...

on organized crime in the 20th and 21st century, the Commission provides an important historical record of criminal activity and public corruption for professional

and

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

. ''The Chicago Crime Commission'' maintains current information on crime issues and criminal activities involving organized crime, gangs and public corruption. Recent

publications To publish is to make Content (media), content available to the general public.Berne Conv ...

include: ''The Gang Book'' (2012) and ''Friend and Foe'' (2007). * ''The Gang Book'' is a 272-page overview of adult Chicago area gangs which includes gang "histories", full color photographs of the "leaders" of "prominent" street gangs, as well as their commonly identifiable characteristics (i.e., graffiti and markings, clothing, tattoos, and hand signs or "sets"). Designed as a training tool, the Commission claims to have "donated over 4,000 copies" of the 2012 edition to local and statewide

agencies as well as other "organizations in the criminal justice field". * ''Friend and Foe'' is a 297-page "exhibit of visual materials that highlight some aspects" of the "history of crime, citizen action, and

" (Forward, p. iii). The work provides "insight into the " Chicago Outfit", public corruption, street gangs, drugs, and the evolution of crime fighting". It includes a decade-by-decade pictorial of

's crime problems, included "original photographs, cartoons, ewspaperheadlines, lithographs, fingerprints, drawings" (Forward, p. iii) and "previously unseen documents" from the Commission's historical archive.

Crime reporting

A non-government agency, the Commission acts an intermediary between citizens and law enforcement to help initiate investigations. The Anonymous Public Corruption Reporting Hotline is a web-based public corruption and crime reporting system that gives government employees and concerned citizens an effective way to reach law enforcement anonymously. The Anonymous Crime Reporting Hotline accepts tips on general and gang-related criminal activities.

Public activities

The Chicago Crime Commission presents and sponsors presentations on current law enforcement issues and criminal justice issues, continuing its track record of exposing corruption and organized criminal activities and encouraging public debate on issues of public safety and national security. The Chicago Crime Commission hosts at least four events a year open to the public: (1) a mid-year member luncheon, (2) a golf benefit; (3) an annual dinner benefit; and (4) a holiday luncheon. The Commission accepts* sponsorship and event purchases online at http://www.chicagocrimecommission.org (*subject to availability and security clearance).

Funding and expenses

As a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, the Commission receives

funding Funding is the act of providing resources to finance a need, program, or project. While this is usually in the form of money, it can also take the form of effort or time from an organization or company. Generally, this word is used when a firm use ...

solely from private citizens and businesses committed to improving the quality of

public safety Public security or public safety is the prevention of and protection from events that could endanger the safety and security of the public from significant danger, injury, or property damage. It is often conducted by a state government to ensu ...

in their communities. Per the Illinois Attorney General's "Charitable Database Search", the Commission reported an annual income of roughly $500,000 in 2014 and 2015 eg. Number: 01008852; EIN: 360898425 In 2014, Executive Director Joseph Ways was compensated $167,000 while retiring Vice-President Arthur Bilek collected a salary of $87,000.

References

External links

Chicago Crime Commission website

Anonymous Crime Reporting Hotline

FBI Chicago

Project Safe Neighborhoods Chicago

{{Authority control 1919 establishments in Illinois Organizations based in Chicago Organized crime in Chicago History of Chicago Law enforcement in Illinois Charities based in Illinois