The racist Chicago Gang Database has to go.

Chicago police maintain two massive gang databases, collectively labeling more than 280,000 people as “gang members.” 95% of those people listed are people of color, most being young men in their late teens and 20s, but also thousands being Black and Latinx youth and elders. CPD does not require any evidence to support a gang designation, they do not have to make an arrest, or even inform you that you’ve been placed in the database. Yet once your name has been added, you cannot be removed. CPD itself has been unable to explain how this gang database makes communities “safe,” even after investigations by the The City of Chicago Office of Inspector General’s office reported several faulty and inaccurate practices by CPD in its use of the database. Even with all that, the data compiled in the database is shared with over 500 agencies, including Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the FBI. 

Being in the gang database has a devastating impact, making encounters with police more frequent, and often more violent. It can also have a negative impact on bail, bond, conviction, sentencing, and parole decisions. And it can create barriers to education, housing, employment, and immigration relief. 

Pass the Community Restoration Ordinance!

The Community Restoration Ordinance (CRO) combines the Gang Database Ordinance and Peace Book Ordinance to proactively place financial and structural investment in Chicago communities, while retroactively addressing harm done under the Gang Database. If passed, the CRO would pull from the police budget to immediately dissolve and prevent the creation of a new database that has perpetuated racist narratives and inaccurate data, and place investment in the long-term reparations/restitution of Black and Latinx communities by providing alternative approaches to policing - such as free tuition, access to city employment, peace keepers to conduct peace negotiations in moments of conflict/violence, and resourcing restorative justice programs.

Passing the CRO would:

1. Abolish the gang database: We do not want an “improved” database, we want to eliminate gang databases. We insist on the humanity of everyone in our communities and refuse distinctions between innocent and guilty or deserving and undeserving. 
2. Restitution: Call for reparations for individuals harmed by the database and for funding to be redirected from police toward the communities most harmed by the database.
3. Peace Book: Create a public safety tool for our community that acts opposite to the ‘Gang Book.’ This resource sets out to stop violence across Chicago by decriminalizing our people, highlighting the ways that we can repair harm using restorative justice tactics, and stopping the violence created by racist policing without resorting to the criminal punishment system.

To get involved or for more information:

• https://www.facebook.com/erasethedatabase/  or http://erasethedatabase.com/