By Frank Main
The Chicago Sun-Times
Richard M. Daley was the Cook County state’s attorney before he was elected mayor in 1989.
So, from the moment he took office as Chicago’s mayor, Daley took a get-tough-on-crime stance.
But he struck a balance.
At his frequent public appearances, Daley also emphasized the need for citizens to cooperate with cops. In 1993, his police department launched CAPS, the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy. The novel community-policing program grabbed national attention and inspired copycats in other cities. The department also was ahead of many big cities in using technology to fight crime.
Over the years, violent crime has fallen dramatically in the city. In 1989, there were 747 murders; last year, there were 458.
Still, Chicago has remained a more violent place than New York or Los Angeles based on the ratio of crime to population. The mayor could never shake the image of Chicago as a haven for gangsters going back to the days of Al Capone. That image may have been one reason Chicago lost its bid to host the Olympics in 2016 -- even though the winner, Rio de Janeiro, is far more harrowing in some areas.
Daley’s persistent efforts to control guns in Chicago have been less than successful, too. He supported anti-gun legislation that Downstate legislators shot down. And this summer, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the city’s handgun ban.
The mayor’s support among the police rank-and-file has eroded. Much of the discontent stems from budget woes that have led to manpower shortages. Upon news of the mayor’s retirement, one cop blog posted an image of the Wicked Witch under the heading: “Good riddance.”
Daley also has weathered criticism over police scandals including torture allegations involving Jon Burge, the police commander fired in 1993 and convicted of perjury in federal court this summer; the 1999 police shootings of unarmed motorists LaTanya Haggerty and Robert Russ, and off-duty police officer Anthony Abbate’s videotaped beating of a female bartender in 2007.
Copyright 2010 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.