Chicago police head says gang summit paying off

Chicago's embattled police superintendent was harshly criticized for a meeting with gang members that aldermen characterized as the coddling of criminals. But after seeing a dramatic drop in killings in the city, Jody Weis says he can't wait to meet with them again.

This time, Weis said, when the gangsters walk in they'll see plastered on the walls photographs of their buddies — 250 in all — who were arrested after they failed to heed Weis' warning that if anyone from their gangs committed murder the department would come down on them.

"They are going to see all the people they know who were arrested," Weis said during a Tuesday interview with The Associated Press.

Weis' comments come six months after headlines about what had been a secret meeting. The criticism dovetailed with union complaints and concerns about morale in the department that have put the former FBI agent on the defensive. He was brought in by Mayor Richard Daley to clean up a scandal-plagued force, but all four of the main candidates to replace Daley in next week's mayoral election have said they would replace Weis once in office.

Weis made a point Tuesday of defending the meeting with gang members, saying nobody was coddled. He said the only ones angry were the gang members who didn't like the idea of being held responsible for the actions of others in their gangs.

"We laid out to them that this is going to happen to someone if your gang kills someone. You will have our undivided attention," Weis told the AP. "We told them, 'You guys are going to be the deliverer of the message to your boys that this is going to happen.'"

In fact, Weis said, after a shooting death of a gang member, allegedly by a member of the Black Souls, police picked up more than 60 members of that gang on a host of federal and state charges. A second sweep resulted in more than 100 arrests of members of the Traveling Vice Lords gang.

At the same time, he said, the number of murders in the city's 11th District on the city's West side where their efforts were focused dropped 40 percent since the meeting. In 2010, the number of murders in Chicago was the lowest since 1965, and violent crime dropped dramatically.

Weis said the next meeting, within the next two weeks, will look much like the last one. "It will be a monologue, not a dialogue," he said.

The characterization stands in contrast with the way some in the city reacted to news of the last meeting. Alderman Robert Fioretti asked why the department was "negotiating or having a sit-down with urban terrorists who are killing with guns and drugs."

"Gangs," said Fioretti, "are not to be coddled."

On Tuesday, though, Weis dismissed such criticism, saying none of those who were critical even attended the meeting. Their comments, he said, were "a way to get their face out in the news."

As for his own future, Weis said he would like to keep his job. He said he has not talked to any of the mayoral candidates, but hoped to talk to either the winner or the top two candidates if a runoff is necessary after next Tuesday's election.

Weis, who was plucked from the FBI by Mayor Richard Daley with a mandate to clean up the reputation of the department plagued by instances of police brutality and misconduct, also said that in the three years he's been superintendent there have been no major scandals, and that the number of lawsuits filed against the department also has dropped.

"I would say those would be pretty good measures to measure a police superintendent by, " he said. "But this is Chicago."

Still, he said, he wants to discuss what has been accomplished and what strategies he's employed.

"If that should change their opinion of me, so be it," he said.

But the candidates, as recently as this week, didn't sound like they wanted him to stay on the job. Rahm Emanuel, for example, pointed to the reports that morale among the rank and file officers has plummeted, saying there has been a "battle between Jody Weis and the police department and the city can't afford that constant battle."

Weis' best hope may be if City Clerk Miguel del Valle, who is far behind in recent polls, pulls off what would be seen as a stunning upset.

"I like what I'm hearing," he said of the department. "Maybe by the time that this election rolls around and the next mayor is sworn in, maybe Jody Weis will be the best thing since apple pie."