Violence Reduction in Joliet, Illinois: An Evaluation of the Strategic Tactical Deployment Program

Introduction 

 

The Joliet Police Department is the fourth largest municipal law enforcement agency in the 

state of Illinois employing 247 sworn officers with an operating budget of $37,986,375. In 2009, 

Joliet handled 111,274 calls for service and made 6,575 arrests. The 2010 U. S. Census reports 

that the city of Joliet has a population of 147,133 persons, covering an area of 38.3 square miles. 

Joliet is located 35 miles southwest of the city of Chicago in Will County, the fastest-

growing area of the state of Illinois. Founded over 150 years ago, Joliet once had a strong 

manufacturing-based economy that has since diversified into other areas. As a result, Joliet 

enjoyed an 89% population increase in the twenty years between 1990 and 2010. Even with this 

significant population increase, Joliet has enjoyed a decreasing crime rate. Over the past ten 

years, Uniform Crime Report (UCR) violent crime (homicide, criminal sexual assault, and 

aggravated assault) decreased by 52% per 100,000 residents. Unfortunately, some types of 

violent crime, specifically gun violence, were not represented in this trend.  

 

As an older, industrial city, Joliet has long struggled with a formidable gang problem. After 

a relatively quiet decade, gang-related shootings began to increase in Joliet in 2006. Gang-related 

shootings ranged from a low of 78% of all shootings in2005 to a high of 84% in 2007. While 

other types of violent crime were falling in Joliet, gun related crime continued to rise. The need 

for strategies to control gun crime became critical. If police could get more guns off the street, 

hopefully, there would be fewer gun crimes. 

Joliet police have identified 3,142 active gang members in their city, and an estimated 

10,000 associates. In 2010, a documented shooting incident (homicide, aggravated battery with a 

firearm, aggravated discharge of a firearm, or reckless discharge of a firearm) occurred every 

two days in Joliet. This number does not include “shots fired” calls, where no tangible evidence 

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is found that a shooting occurred, nor does it include unreported incidents. To exacerbate this 

problem, officers often encounter a multitude of witnesses, all of whom are unwilling to provide 

any information about the shootings, the direct result of which has been an arrest rate of only 

16% over the past 5 years for these types of offenses. 

 

In 2007, the Joliet Police Department implemented an intelligence-based, rapid response 

program to address the shooting problem. Dubbed “Strategic Tactical Deployment,” this 

program involves weekly analyses of the following incidents: shootings, weapons seizures, 

robberies, criminal sexual assaults, drug arrests, burglaries, burglaries to motor vehicles, gang-

related graffiti, recent gang intelligence, and parolee information. All are discussed with key 

members of the department and a collaborative decision is made (based on spatial and temporal 

analysis) of the best way to deploy patrol resources in the coming week. 

 

Even though Joliet experienced short-term success with the Strategic Tactical Deployment 

initiative, police recognized that such “hot-spot” policing may be more effective when practiced 

in conjunction with a tailored, problem-solving strategy. Research on effective problem-oriented 

policing methods to address gun violence suggest that several approaches may be taken 

including arrest warrant sweeps targeting known offenders, creating witness incentives, and 

implementing a “pulling levers” focused deterrence strategy.  

 

Given the large number of probationers and parolees in the city, Joliet police began a new 

problem-solving approach. In cooperation with the Will County Adult Probation Department and 

the Illinois Department of Corrections, an information sharing partnership was forged between 

all three agencies. The intelligence-based, police deployment strategy generated from the weekly 

Strategic Tactical Deployment meeting was expanded to include information and participation 

from these two agencies; the final goal being to reduce gun violence in Joliet.  

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On average, 2,000 people are sentenced to probation in Will County every year, the majority 

of whom reside in Joliet. Due to large caseloads, 98% of these persons receive only two or three 

home visits a year from probation officers. There are also approximately 600 parolees living 

within the city limits at any given time. A key proposition in criminology is that a significant 

proportion of crime is committed by a relatively small group of persistent or prolific offenders. 

Targeting these individuals, so the argument goes, will be one of the most effective ways of 

delivering reductions in crime (Moffitt, 1993; Wolfgang, Figlio, and Sellin, 1972). Although the 

specific numbers of persistent offenders and recidivism for Joliet is unavailable, the Urban 

Institute found that 59% of all Illinois offenders were rearrested within three years of release 

from prison (Yahner and Visher, 2008).   

 

The Strategic Tactical Deployment program expanded Joliet’s hot-spot policing effort from 

several perspectives:  partnership with probation and parole, evidence-based policing, increased 

communication and public outreach, and formal evaluation. The goal of evidence-based policing   

is to turn research into practice. The STD program incorporated a number of proven “smart 

policing” activities including strategic manpower deployment, a “compstat” model command 

and control function, and a collaborative partnerships with the Will County Adult Probation 

Department and the Illinois Department of Corrections in an effort to reduce gun violence. 

 

The new collaborative approach included strong information-sharing partnerships between 

the Joliet Police Department and probation and parole, beginning with the dissemination of the 

names, addresses, and terms of release of current probationers and recent parolees. This 

information was analyzed, integrated, and shared at Strategic Tactical Deployment meetings, 

where weekly geo-focused Strategic Tactical Deployment assignments were made. By 

distributing this information, street-level officers were able to use probation/parole information 

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