UChicago Crime Lab’s Mayoral Public Safety Pledge
Chicago has a high-stakes mayoral election coming up in 2027. Given our dire budget situation, what should – or even can – whoever is in charge next do to address the city’s top priority: gun violence?
We offer here four evidence-based ideas that taken together have the potential to cut shootings in half at little to no additional cost:
- Getting more from existing spending on community violence intervention
- Getting more crime prevention from our biggest social program: K-12 schooling
- Harnessing other parts of city government – like parks, streets and sanitation, and even the department of transportation – that people normally don’t associate with public safety
- Strengthening and modernizing the Chicago Police Department
Read our op-ed in the Chicago Tribune.
Read our guest essay in A City That Works.
Key voices backing this pledge (in formation)
The op-ed has been sent to all Chicago mayoral candidates, and so far, Joe Holberg, John Kelly, Susana Mendoza, Mike Quigley, and Liam Stanton have signed on in support of the pledge. We will continue to update this page as additional candidates choose to join the list.
Affiliations included for identification purposes only
- Greg Cameron, President & CEO, The Joffrey Ballet
- Jessie Callahan Dadosky
- Richard Day, A City That Works
- Brendon Deenihan, Former Chief of Detectives, Chicago Police Department
- Chris Deutsch, Founder, Lofty Ventures
- Ben Feigenberg, Professor of Economics, University of Illinois Chicago
- Bernie Glos, former Superintendent, DuPage County, Illinois Juvenile Detention Center
- Ashley Hartman, Managing Partner, Bluestein Ventures
- Ray Iwanowski, Investor’s Council Member and Harris Council Member
- Steve Levitt, Co-Founder, UChicago Center for RSIC and UChicago Professor Emeritus
- Michelle Morrison, Youth Guidance
- Harold Pollack
- Margot Pritzker
- Trisha Rooney, Founder and CEO, R4 Services
- John Schmidt, Former U.S. Associate Attorney General
- Jeffrey Severts, Co-Founder & Executive Director, UChicago Center for RISC
- Mike Shaver, President and CEO, Brightpoint
- Michael Small
- Robin Loewenberg Tebbe and Mark Tebbe
- David R. Williams, Chief Business Development Officer, Youth Advocate Programs, Inc.
Please email us at crimelab@uchicago.edu if you would like to be added to this list.