Jody Weis, Chicago's new police superintendent, has decided to indefinitely postpone the department's weekly meetings in which high-ranking officers discuss trouble spots in the city.
Weis told the Chicago Tribune that he was suspending the "Hot Spot" meetings, which are based on CompStat, to determine if there are better ways to evaluate where to allocate police resources.
The "Hot Spot" meetings were part of the crime-fighting strategy of Weis' predecessor Philip Cline. They were implemented in 2003 with the creation of the department's Deployment Operations Center, a crime analysis unit that some credit with reducing the murder rate in the city.
The weekly Hot Spot meetings involved 100 to 200 police brass as well as visiting department officials and community outreach groups such as CeaseFire. During the meetings, weekly crime trends were displayed on large video scenes and commanders and deputy chiefs were grilled over why crime was up in their area and asked what they were going to do about it. The meetings were often lengthy.
Police officials say that despite the suspension of the meetings the Deployment Operations Center will remain in operation.
Much of the information shared at the meetings is available through the department intranet, police spokeswoman Monique Bond said.
"The goal is to make it more efficient," Bond told the Tribune. "Is it smarter to have so many of the brass at the meeting at once, or would it be smarter just to get that information and funnel it down. That's what they're evaluating."
