Community Safety
JCUA is organizing for robust accountability of the Chicago Police Department and the expansion of non-carceral approaches to public safety.
Chicago is a vibrant and diverse city where we all strive for safe and thriving neighborhoods. However, national narratives about Chicago often focus narrowly on violent crime while overlooking its root causes. Chicago’s history of systemic racism — including housing segregation, redlining, predatory lending, disinvestment, and state violence — continues to create inequities that disproportionately harm Black and Brown communities.
Creating true community safety requires a holistic approach. Yet, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) is entrusted with the lion’s share of public resources as the primary, and often harmful, response to many of the city’s challenges. Resistant to reform, unaccountable to the communities it serves, and ill-equipped to address systemic social issues, CPD frequently employs strategies that fail to reduce crime and instead perpetuate harm through surveillance, criminalization, and violence in communities of color.
As Jews, we understand that our safety is inseparable from the safety of our neighbors. Jewish safety is rooted in solidarity, especially knowing that Jews of Color face compounded risks of violence. JCUA’s Community Safety Committee works within multiracial coalitions to advance transformative solutions. We organize for police accountability through Empowering Communities for Public Safety (ECPS) and advocate for non-carceral approaches to mental health crises through the Treatment Not Trauma initiative.
To learn more, sign up for email updates on our Community Safety work.
Treatment Not Trauma
The Treatment Not Trauma campaign aims to transform Chicago’s approach to mental health. We are seeking to re-open Chicago’s public mental health clinics and create a dedicated response where social workers and other experts could respond to mental health crises.
Empowering Communities for Public Safety (ECPS)
For six years, JCUA organized to implement a powerful system of civilian oversight of the Chicago Police Department — where the people could take on important roles for police accountability and public safety. Since the Empowering Communities for Public Safety (ECPS) ordinance passed in July 2021, we have been working to fully implement and build on the new system.
Past Campaigns
When JCUA first adopted a community organizing model in 2014, our first campaign was to open a Level 1 Trauma Center on the Hyde Park campus of the University of Chicago.