Melba Lara: Associate U.S. Attorney General, Vanita Gupta, was on Chicago's West Side to learn more about violence prevention efforts in the city. Gupta is the third highest ranking member of the U.S. Department of Justice. She also oversaw the 2017 investigation into the Chicago Police Department that found a pattern of racist and abusive policing. Gupta spoke with WBEZ's Patrick Smith at an anti violence in office in the North Lawndale neighborhood just after Gupta heard from a roundtable of Chicago violent prevention leaders and researchers. Smith asked Gupta why she decided to visit the west side of the city.

Vanita Gupta: I think there's so much innovation in going on, the problem of gun violence is one that is affecting communities all over the country. And I was really eager to come here because there's an incredible ecosystem of organizations working locally to stem gun violence. And there's no question that we're only going to be able to tackle this problem with strong community leadership, community innovation. And that's what I'm seeing here in the West Side.

Patrick Smith: I know there are people out there, people who have maybe made Chicago sort of the poster child for gun violence, who would scoff at the idea that there are positive lessons to be learned from the Chicago when it comes to preventing gun violence. What would you say to them?

Vanita Gupta: Look, I think that it's easy to be cynical. You know, there are a lot of cities around the country that are experiencing problems with gun violence and I don't think we should just single out Chicago. And I think the lesson of community violence intervention is that you give up on no one and that violence is preventable. And I have actually think this work is incredibly inspiring and hopeful. There's no question that we continue to see tragedies. But the last thing we can do in this moment is, you know, throw our hands up and give up on any community.

Patrick Smith: You talked about an all hands approach. I mean, you asked the people that the anti violence workers, the researchers at the roundtable about how they interact with the Chicago Police Department as they're doing this work. What did you make of their responses?

Vanita Gupta: I thought they were really real. I was inspired to hear that the partnerships are strong, they're not perfect, but that there's been tremendous buy in kind of on both sides is what I'm hearing. I actually have been really heartened by the relationship. I think it is one that requires constant work and is not something that can be taken for granted. It sounds like also some of these organizations are also working to support police reform. And I think, look, at the end of the day, you cannot solve the problem of violent crime if the community doesn't trust the police and the community is gonna only trust the police if they feel like the police is legitimately operating and operating fairly in your community. And so you've got to work on all of these things together. You've got to have a police department that is - has fair, kind of, policies and practices and a police department that can also work with the community, to co-create community safety. And nowhere is that more true than in a place like Chicago. We know the history here. And I think it's really important that there's been significant kind of buy in by the Chicago Police Department to work with these organizations that have incredible credibility and legitimacy in their, in their neighborhood.

Patrick Smith: You obviously, you know Chicago well. You were in charge of the investigation into the Chicago Police Department that is the basis for the consent decree that we have now. Have you been keeping up with Chicago's progress or lack thereof as far as police reform? And what do you make of the efforts so far?

Vanita Gupta: I hear anecdotally about, you know, setbacks and progress. What I hear sounds like a lot of what I see in consent decrees in other parts of the country. This stuff takes time. I always say that the culture change doesn't happen overnight. The reforms don't happen overnight. It always requires sustained commitment from city officials, from police leaders, from community members. And the goal is to really keep at it, because we have seen real transformation in police community relationships where there has been buy in and collaboration. But that's ultimately the only way that any of this is successful. And my hope is that we can see the City of Chicago really work through some entrenched problems and historical problems towards a better and safer city.

Melba Lara: That was Associate U.S. Attorney General Vanita Gupta talking with WBEZ's Patrick Smith. This is WBEZ.

WBEZ transcripts are generated by an automatic speech recognition service. We do our best to edit for misspellings and typos, but mistakes do come through.