Now in its tenth year of providing funds for crime-deterring surveillance cameras, alley lighting and police patrols, the near South Side’s Operation Impact will be expanding its services into the 14th Aldermanic District, including parts of Bay View.
Operation Impact founder Alderman Bob Donovan and 14th District Alderman Tony Zielinski said the expansion will be Operation Impact’s first foray outside of the Second Police District on the near South Side, and its first footprint in the Sixth Police District further to the south. The Operation Impact board approved the expansion during a meeting last week.
“Operation Impact has demonstrated that by leveraging private resources to the public’s benefit, you can foster a profound improvement in public safety,” Alderman Zielinski said. “I am very excited and grateful that we will be able to offer the added security of surveillance cameras to parts of my district.”
Alderman Donovan said that Operation Impact will work together with city leaders and the community to determine where resources can best be utilized.
“Thanks to the philanthropy of the individuals and the foundations that support Operation Impact and the way that this program has engaged residents, we are able to continue expanding beyond the original scope of the program,” Alderman Donovan said. “The much-needed crime-fighting techniques that Operation Impact allows us to deploy are clearly in demand, and I’m thankful to the board for their foresight in recognizing the potential this expanded footprint has to help the city.”
