The Watchmen of Rogers Park
Rick Jones and his band of self-appointed community patrolmen keep a close eye on their North Side neighbors, keeping their streets safe of everything from drug dealers to parking violators.
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Following Beat 2432’s victory with 1715 Albion, Jones was invited to give a presentation to Mayor Daley about the win he'd had with the CAPS program. “We got respect with that and people took notice," he says. Fueled by success, he and his partners have redoubled their efforts, using what they’ve learned and adding new tricks.
Much of Jones and company’s strategy is to leverage city rules about a building and its owner, not the local criminals themselves. If he can prompt a building sale, it usually means the eviction of all the people living in the problem building.
“I’m not at all opposed to going to court if it’s appropriate. They call the guy’s name, and fifty people stand up because that's how we show we are an offended community. It sends a message to that little gangbanger. We know who you are and we know what you’re doing and we’re watching you,” he says. “[But] the best way to deal with this problem is to go after the landlord. [The owners] have this attitude like, look, I have this building, I rent it out to tenants. If they commit a crime, that's not my problem. That's a police problem. And we tell them, it's your problem. You're part of the problem because you're not screening your people. That's where it all begins. That's kind of the pivot point."
"I've been working on these buildings," Gillman says, "and they're all alike. Slumlords, like, go to school to be slumlords. They won't spend any money on repairs. They'll do anything to avoid making those repairs, even spend thousands of dollars on an attorney in court. Any of the rest of us, we get written up, and oh, gotta fix it. Got a fine? Gotta pay it. They're not like that."
Jones sees a lot of the power of CAPS as getting the bureaucracy to move "There's ordinances and laws governing every aspect of behavior. But getting anything enforced can be difficult," he says. If the city is a giant machine with different levers for residents to pull and signal that something isn't right, this group has discovered lots of them: zoning inspector, housing, building inspector, 911, 311, immigration, board of health, trash. It's all about figuring out what applies to which situation, and which method is the best route to change. For example, Jones says he got one gang leader in the community deported back to Mexico.
Gene and Jill Rehmert were among the architects that designed the CAPS program when things got started in Rogers Park. "What we would do is pull every lever that can apply," Gene says. "Even if we have to not necessarily break the truth, but stretch the truth to make that apply, we do that."
"But you're methodical about it," Jill explains to her husband. "You don't pull them all at once…you figure out the first one to pull. And then it seems like all the rest fall into play. But it's hard to figure out, what is the result I want, and what is the best way to do it quickly. Sometimes that's hard."
It can get more complicated, Jones concedes, when dealing with an issue that's more of a nuisance than a felony. Then, he says, he finds other ways to go after them. He glances up to his right, pretending to peer intently at a building. It looks like there might be a brick loose. He might need to call the building inspector. For one problem building, Jones looked into the building owner and found his Achilles Heel. "He's been discovered to be receiving a homeowner's exemption on three different properties. Isn't that something. And you know what? Unfortunately for him, the Cook County's Assessor's Office knows all about it. And is taking action,” he says with a laugh.
The six-unit building that once comprised part of the unholy trinity has been sold as well, soon after Kenny drew up some stationery from the Albion Improvement Association and hand delivered the letter to the owner's home address, saying they were fed up with negligence on the block. But Jones says that things are slipping again on Albion. He has been "getting a lot of reports" about the play lot next to the building. The group had already battled to bring down the basketball hoop they believed was attracting gang bangers (Jones had discovered that "play lot" was legally a space for children 12 and under.) But after a dip in activity, things are raring back up again.
