Chicago police launch crackdown in dangerous neighborhoods

Chicago police are launching a new crackdown on crime in the city’s two most dangerous neighborhoods.

At a news conference Monday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy outlined an initiative to put more pressure on gangs and drug dealers in the city’s Englewood and Harrison police districts.

The plan includes pouring more uniformed officers into the most violent spots in those neighborhoods. They’ll also deploy some of the city’s gang and narcotics officers in those spots to eliminate drug dealing locations and break up the most violent gangs.

Emanuel and McCarthy say that while there are 22 police districts in Chicago, about 25 percent of the city’s homicides in 2011 occurred in those two districts. Englewood also saw a 40 percent increase in homicides last year.