Watch: Chicago Police Work to Empower Communities to Reduce Gun Violence

By Catherine Dorrough

Jermaine Harris is an 18-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department. In his current role as a Community Policing Sergeant, he develops community-based strategies involving law enforcement and nonprofit partners.

“At the start of 2018, in the span of a month, in a radius of just over one city block, the total violence devastated a community on the West Side of Chicago,” said Harris during Equipped 2021. “Struggling to find answers to this problem, we turned inward. Out of tragedy, a solution of hope through community response teams was formed.”

Harris said that growing up in the same neighborhoods where he now serves as an officer provided him with an opportunity to see strengths where others might see weaknesses.

By utilizing social justice strategies to prevent violence, Harris works to attack the root reasons why people commit crimes. “For many, this is a major shift in what we understand as the purpose of law enforcement,” he said.

Watch the clip below for more.