Left to right: Brandis Friedman, WTTW News; Eric Smith, BMO Bank; Rebecca Neusteter, University of Chicago Health Lab; Tim Daly, The Joyce Foundation; and Lorne Runnels, BlackRoots Alliance, sit on a panel on July 25, 2024, discussing solutions to gun violence. (Blair Paddock / WTTW News)

Often siloed, community advocates, business leaders and policymakers need to collaborate to end gun violence in Chicago.

That’s according to local leaders from those respective fields, who spoke at an event Thursday night in Homan Square called Reducing Gun Violence: The Ecosystem of Public Safety.

The event kicks off a three-part series — Ending Gun Violence in Chicago: Connecting Policy, Practice and Community — from the philanthropic group The Joyce Foundation.

With WTTW News’ Brandis Friedman moderating, panelists ranging from youth violence prevention organizers to people who work in banking shared how they’re trying to curb violence in the city.

Through the end of June, homicides are down 12.2% year to date, according to the Chicago Police Department. There’s a 5.8% drop in shooting incidents and a 3.2% decline in the number of shooting victims. All are the lowest figures since 2019.

“We need to take stock in progress,” said Rebecca Neusteter, executive director of the University of Chicago Health Lab.

For Pam Bosley, executive director of Purpose Over Pain, the mission is personal. One of her sons was shot and killed on the grounds of a church in 2006. She’s since co-founded the group that provides activities to youth and crisis support for parents or guardians impacted by gun violence.

She emphasized the need to improve CPD’s clearance rates — at about 61% through the end of June, according to the department. Her son’s case has still not been solved.

“We’re trying to figure out how to make it stop, the only way we can stop is we have to solve these cases,” said Bosley.

Business leaders were also at the table. On the panel was Eric Smith, vice chairman of BMO Bank and co-chair of the Public Safety Task Force with the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

He spoke on the club’s fundraising efforts — $100 million raised for violence prevention in about a year that the club is currently trying to double. Its allocation will be split into four parts: community violence intervention, creating jobs, technology development and additional funding for the police department.

In this next fundraising goal, Smith said $75 million will support CPD, pointing to the hiring, training and development needs of the consent decree. The federal court order requires CPD to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers; the city is in full compliance with just 7% of the consent decree.

“We don’t have the time to sit and wait for the government and city to find the funding,” Smith said.

Neusteter said the different ways in which police affect different communities needs to be in conversation. 

She’s on the Transform911 team, which calls for an overhaul of the emergency system. Police aren’t always the best to respond to an emergency, she said. The city has an effort to respond to 911 calls not with police, but with social workers and counselors for those experiencing a mental health crisis.

Lorne Runnels, organizing director with the BlackRoots Alliance, said communities need to be listened to when speaking about solving gun violence. One of the root causes needs to be addressed: poverty.

These issues are all connected, said Tim Daly, program director of Gun Violence Prevention and Justice Reform with The Joyce Foundation.

“You need to worry about the supply and flow of guns, you need to ensure that policing is fair and constitutional, we need to make sure that 911 is responsive to what communities are asking for,” Daly said.

After the panel, attendees broke into groups to dissect what they learned from the speakers and what they can learn from one another’s perspective.

And for Katelyn Johnson, executive director of the BlackRoots Alliance, her table came to the consensus that it’s all about relationships and engaging with people, especially those who have dealt with these issues firsthand.

“We can’t talk at people, we have to listen and we have to make sure that people who are directly impacted are in the room,” Johnson said.

WTTW presented the event in partnership with The Joyce Foundation, BlackRoots Alliance and the City Club of Chicago.

A Safer City is supported, in part, by the Sue Ling Gin Foundation Initiative for Reducing Violence in Chicago.