by Zhang | Feb 14, 2025 | Academic year 2024/2025
The vast majority of gunshots detected by ShotSpotter and followed up by a first responder yield no evidence to confirm that a crime has taken place – no 911 calls, witnesses, victims, or shell casings. Are these ShotSpotter alerts successes, or are they failures, reports of a gunshot that are akin to the ambiguous noise of a tree that may have fallen in an empty forest? The Chicago Police Department (CPD) deems these alerts successful; a ShotSpotter failure, for the CPD, is counted only when the CPD itself reports a mistaken incident to ShotSpotter via email. Using this methodology, the CPD indicated that ShotSpotter had a 99.6% accuracy for identifying gunshots in 2023.
by Zhang | Feb 13, 2025 | Academic year 2024/2025
By promoting a highly medicalized birth model, we discourage self-advocacy among mothers, leaving pregnant women vulnerable to unnecessary or inappropriate interventions. Our healthcare system also renders childbirth to be extremely expensive, costing an average of $18,865 per birth (excluding prenatal care). These vast expenses partially emanate from centering care at private medical facilities. One ramification of the high costs around birth is that socioeconomic and racial disparities are reinforced: accessing prenatal care becomes burdensome for those with limited resources and poor transportation options.
by Zhang | Feb 8, 2025 | Academic year 2024/2025
These surveillance technologies provoke a law enforcement reaction to crime alerts but do not seem to help much in preventing crime. Carjackings in Chicago decreased after the network of ALPRs was expanded in 2016 until 2020, but have since risen to rates higher to what they were in 2016. While gun violence has decreased to pre-pandemic levels, rates of victimization and shootings remain at historic highs. In order to accelerate crime reduction, and effectively stop people from worrying about the “what-ifs,” CPD should use these technologies to take a preventative approach to crime; currently, the modern equipment seems to have little value in deterring crime.
by Zhang | Feb 7, 2025 | Academic year 2024/2025
States with more funding for community mental health programs report lower incarceration rates for individuals with mental illness. A study conducted in California showed that every $1 spent on community mental health services saves around $6 through reduced police interventions, emergency room visits, and jail time. Wisconsin saw a 10% drop in arrests among participants in its crisis intervention and community mental health programs. Another example comes from San Antonio’s Restoration Center, founded in 2008, which provides detox services and short-term mental health treatment, complemented with long-term care referrals. The jail population in San Antonio has decreased by 20%, saving taxpayers over $10 million annually.
by Zhang | Feb 7, 2025 | Academic year 2024/2025
In addition to economic returns, early education has been found to reduce troublesome behavioral issues. An Australian structured social-emotional learning program offered to first graders lowered problem behaviors such as aggression, anxiety, and hyperactivity, demonstrating that appropriate training can support better self-regulation and conflict resolution skills. More generally, ECE contributes to an overall reduction in crime rates, increased high school graduation rates, and higher lifetime earnings, as students transition into adulthood.
by Zhang | Feb 7, 2025 | Academic year 2024/2025
Sanctuary cities prohibit local law officers from assisting with immigration law enforcers. Nonetheless, since immigration law is federally enforced, sanctuary cities like Chicago cannot offer full protection to undocumented residents. As a result, even long-term resident migrants like Maria can still be uprooted and deported.
by Zhang | Feb 5, 2025 | Academic year 2024/2025
Chicagoans have never gotten their money’s worth from Metra. Singapore’s world-class Rapid Transit network transported 1.3 billion passengers with a budget of just under $4 billion USD last year, equating to about $0.34 in expenses per passenger transported. Paris, Tokyo, and other rail-based cities offer similar numbers. With its 1 billion dollar budget this year, Metra conducted just 32 million passenger trips, spending $32.12 of taxpayer funds for each trip it conducted.
by Zhang | Feb 5, 2025 | Academic year 2024/2025
Transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people comprise only 0.6% of the U.S. population, but Project 2025 would have you believe that ‘transgender ideology’ is an existential threat to the very fabric of American life. Fear-mongering about a vulnerable minority group can admittedly prove to be a viable, albeit cruel, political strategy. But if history is any indication, when one scapegoat falls, the hunt for the next begins.
by Zhang | Feb 4, 2025 | Academic year 2024/2025
Ensuring the success of this event is essential for reminding Mexican residents – and all other residents – that they are welcome and honored in Chicago. El Grito and Mexican Independence Day are annual opportunities for Mexican residents to commemorate their culture and history. Caravans, too, are a method for Mexican residents to gather and see the presence and impact of the Mexican community in the city they call home.
by Zhang | Feb 4, 2025 | Academic year 2024/2025
Admission exams are not the problem and eliminating them is not the solution. The long running, rampant problem is underfunded and under-resourced schools that have failed their students long before high school. Without the proper investment in educators, in parents, and in students themselves, removing an admissions exam serves as a performative but ineffective gesture to address the striking issues of segregation and academic achievement gaps.
