In Chicago, shootings are down 20% through the end of summer and homicides have fallen 16%. That means 101 fewer people were shot this year than last.
ABC's Pierre Thomas traveled to Chicago for an exclusive conversation with police Superintendent David Brown as part of ABC's continuing coverage of guns in America.Over one recent weekend in Chicago, two children under the age of 10 became victims of the city's rampant gun violence.
"It's the most complex policing landscape ever in this country's history. We are making progress, but the complexities make it such that it is so fragile," Brown told Thomas. "The ebbs and flows of violence are persistent." According to Brown, police have also been taking an average of 12,000 guns off Chicago's streets every year -- including "ghost guns," which are unregistered firearms that can be assembled from at-home kits.
"It's like the intelligence network for how we respond to crime, how we solve crime," Brown said. "I think more importantly, this is one of our major linchpins for how we prevent crime." "You look at Harlem in New York today versus Harlem in New York 30 years ago, where you see actually some gentrification, but you see, really, a commitment to economic development. And you see Harlem much safer than it was 30 years ago," Brown said.
ABC's Pierre Thomas and Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown visited a corner once known as a hot spot for crime that has been transformed by economic initiatives into a basketball court and green space."Instead of it being an attraction to hand-to-hand drug transactions, it's an attraction to community engagement with each other and with police," Brown said.
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