Police continue efforts to fight holiday weekend violence

CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) - Chicago Police continued efforts to curb violence over the holiday weekend with the departments superintendent going for a ride-along with officers and one of the state’s top federal prosecutors.

Saturday, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson and John Lausch, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, rode through the Harrison, Deering and Austin police districts on the city’s west and southwest sides after first meeting with officers near the Magnificent Mile.

"We're part of the same mission and it’s real important for us, as prosecutors, to also get a good sense of what’s happening in the neighborhoods where we’re making the cases,” Lausch said outside Chicago Police headquarters. “I want to see what’s happening. I think it’ll help us in our mission, in determining which cases to prosecute.”

Johnson said Friday the department is sending an additional 1,400 officers into the streets over Labor Day weekend.