COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COMPETING AGENDAS ...

and safety. They argue that increased surveillance of drug houses will ensure public
safety in Oak Park.
At Neighborhood Association meetings, residents and the police have created a
strategy to decrease crime in the neighborhood. The police, who are present at every
Neighborhood Association meeting, have created a “Cops Session,” wherein police seek
input from residents about which streets and houses need surveillance and police patrol.
Residents gather in break-out sessions and list the addresses and possible crime occurring
at these certain addresses in the neighborhood. The police will then publicly review the
list with residents. This list is used as a guide for police patrol in the neighborhood. In
addition, police listen to the complaints of residents and inform them of how they can
address issues of crime anonymously. Many residents will attend Neighborhood
Association meetings to become informed about the progress of crime-fighting in Oak
Park.
At a particular Neighborhood Association meeting I attended in January 2006, I
had a rare chance to listen to a woman speak out against agendas to patrol homes and
arrest drug users. Before break-out sessions to pinpoint problem houses took place, a
forty-something year-old African-American woman, who did not say her name but stated
she was a recovering drug addict, stood up and addressed the audience. She anxiously
explained that she did not want drug users to be incarcerated because it would only
ensure the abuser’s cycle of drug use. She further explained that there was a lack of
conversation about rehabilitating drug users and wanted to see more programs created for
drug offenders in the neighborhood. She explained,
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