As Peoria works to address gun violence, Mayor Rita Ali is pushing back against any notion that crime is rampant in the city.
However, some of her political rivals don’t quite feel the same way. District 2 council member Chuck Grayeb voiced his concerns at a recent special city council meeting.
“Neighborhoods that heretofore have never asked the police – never asked the police – to come and make a presentation, neighborhoods that have never asked for a neighborhood watch program, are hurting,” said Grayeb, who is challenging Ali in the 2025 mayoral election, along with at-large council member John Kelly and political newcomer Jake Ryan. “You think crime is down; it’s not down.
“There are a lot of crimes in this community which are absolutely not being reported, which is, of course, the fault of the citizens. I try to encourage them to continue to have faith in the system, which isn’t working well right now. We’ve got to get this system working for all neighborhoods.”
Ali says police and community efforts are having an impact, pointing to year-to-date Peoria Police Department statistics that show significant drops in gun-related crimes.
In her most recent one-on-one monthly interview with WCBU, Ali discusses how Peoria continues to address the challenges of violent crime and community safety.
This transcript has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
We’ve seen another surge in shootings over the past few weeks, and it seems like we continue to have this conversation year after year, month after month. You’ve said many times that you are very concerned about gun violence, but every time we see these incidents, it elevates a community perception that nothing is being done – or that what is being done isn’t quite working. What more can Peoria do to stop these surges in shootings?
Mayor Rita Ali: Well, I would add that much is being done and much is improved. We have to follow the data versus the perceptions - and I know that the perceptions are out there. But when we look at the data and we compare it to the same time last year: shooting incidents are down 26%, shooting victims are down 33%, shooting murder is down 13%, and all murder is down 27%. So we’re making progress.
This is ongoing efforts, ongoing work that we have to continue doing what we think is working, what we see is beginning to work. That’s the investments in some of the technology, the tools that have been given to our police officers; the tools like Tip-411 given to our community members who are cooperating and participating in giving information to the police so that we can solve these crimes that are occurring.
Crime won’t go away, but we have to continue to work toward reducing it in our community – and especially violent crime is of special concern.
So how do you get through to people to not turn to guns for conflict resolution?
Ali: We have to start early, and it starts with the kids and when they first start school; it has to reach the families. But again, with conflict resolution, they’re not fighting with their fists anymore; they have access to guns and they’re using them.
I think that the schools are essential because they’re a captive audience, the children are, their families are. We have to begin to teach them conflict resolution skills that they can take into teenage years and take into young adulthood. Because that’s where the crimes are taking place, mostly with young people who are not mature enough to make good decisions that will affect their future.
Yes, we have to work with them. Carl Cannon just announced a new facility for a safe school at a building near downtown, and his program serves 1,800 people – youth and adults who are at risk. Those who have been in trouble with the law, those who potentially will get in trouble with the law if there’s no intervention.
A youth detention or court-type program is forthcoming, working with the court system. So I think that we have to do as much as we can in as many areas that we have, from crime prevention to crime intervention to co-response models to technology that we’re using to make sure that that doesn’t happen in the future.
You mention the statistics that show things are better, and you mention the steps that the city is taking. But what does Peoria then need to do to ease the public concern or perception that this is a violent city?
Ali: It’s not a violent city; I refute that it’s a violent city. Peoria has violence, just like other cities have violence, but Peoria is not a violent city. We’re going to continue to do the things that are working to reduce crime. We’re never going to be without it; in a city this size with 113,000 people, we’re going to have some crime.
We just have to work together as a village, as a community, using all of our resources. Bringing them together, leveraging our resources, working with neighborhood organizations. Again, the police working with the residents, I think, is the most powerful tool that we can use – and many of the not-for-profits that are offering intervention programming, afterschool programming. The mayor’s youth internship program that takes 14- and 15-year-olds off the street in the summer and gives them employment and job opportunities.
I think that these are things that we all work together, mentorship initiatives to keep our kids safe, to keep them interested in something – attach it to sports to get them interested in something positive and productive in their lives, rather than that idle time. It’s the idle time that gets them in trouble.
We heard a couple weeks ago during the Peoria Civic Center’s annual report that their administration has fielded concerns about downtown safety, and they’re trying to take some steps in the facility to ease those feelings. But what is the city’s responsibility in making people feel safe on the street – in that vicinity and everywhere?
Ali: Absolutely. So we have patrols that have been monitoring the parking decks on a regular basis, on a daily basis, especially in the evening time. We had, for a while, these groups that were mostly young people that were gathering at certain places downtown, and police had to come and move them along. Sometimes it’s taken using some things like pepper spray to just kind of clear the air.
But I think the presence of the police, the presence of the vehicles, the lighting that has been installed in certain areas – these crowds don’t like to be in a highly lit area. So we’ve used lighting, we’ve used police presence, police vehicles, other tools, I think, to keep it safe downtown, especially late at night. That’s when people get concerned.
Then there’s, you know, people are concerned sometimes with the unhoused population in the downtown area, and we’re working on that as well.
That goes right into my next question. The city council just approved the Salvation Army’s project to build a new men’s shelter. And we’ve heard during the budget discussions that the city has and continues to assist in funding toward developing housing options for those experiencing homelessness. But it’s still a significant issue the city is facing. So what else can Peoria do to assist the unhoused population?
Ali: We need facilities. We need to continue with facilities. Phoenix (Community Development Services) has done a marvelous job; the Salvation Army now more than doubling their men’s shelter with the new campus that’s coming (with) the big contribution also from the state of Illinois of $2 million. The Dream Center houses many of the unhoused population.
But again, we need permanent housing solutions for this population. So we need temporary housing, we need permanent housing solutions, and we’re working on affordable housing. We’re looking at almost a million dollars in funding in our revised budget for 2025 toward housing.
We have about 60 people, individuals that are considered unhoused currently – and I’m not talking about people who are doubling up with family or friends, but people who are out on the streets or they’re squatting somewhere. Downtown, there’s about 44 individuals that are living in encampments; some people would say that’s one encampment, but I say it’s about 11 encampments.
And those encampments have different identities. There’s a small group here that has pets, everybody has pets and they don’t want to separate from their pets because their pets can’t go into the housing (shelters). A group over here, (everyone) has a partner; they don’t want to separate from their partner to go into housing. So there’s some cultural identification, things that keep them together as a group. Some are users of drugs; some have mental health issues. Some have some serious health issues otherwise.
But we have to address this. We are looking at some revisions to an ordinance that was introduced a few months ago. But again, it’s meeting with the population – and I’ve met with several individuals in the unhoused community, or those that work with the unhoused community. So I’m learning more about this community and their needs.
We have to get them into housing, and we have to provide wraparound support services; you can’t just do one without the other. You can’t just do the wraparound where they are in an encampment that’s not safe, that’s not good for them to be out there. We have got the winter months coming, and you can’t do the housing without the wraparound support services. So we have to have both working together to support this population.
As you mentioned, we know the city is still contemplating this ordinance on prohibiting unauthorized public campsites, and we are coming up on the winter months now. Where does this potential ban stand, and has your position on it changed at all?
Ali: My position has not changed. My position has been that Peoria will not continue to allow individuals to live outside in encampments. That’s my position. It’s not safe; it’s not good for the individuals. I know that there are some that say that we should sanction these outdoor encampments, and I’m not a proponent for that sanctioning.
I want to get everybody into either temporary or permanent housing, and the temporary that leads toward permanent housing. I know that there will be some resistors, but the research tells me that there should not likely be more than 25% of these individuals who will resist, that most of them want to be housed.
But as you said, there are some who have partners that wouldn’t be able to shelter with them, or some who have pets who couldn’t shelter with them. What options would we have for those people?
Ali: Right, and that’s something I think that we have to be open to having more flexibility into some new housing options, perhaps some housing options that may be able to allow for some pets, may be able to allow for some companions. I think that we have to be more creative and more flexible in terms of the type of housing that we’re offering individuals without separating them from their loved ones.
So how will the city work to address these campsites and the individuals at the sites as the weather turns colder, especially with the shelters pretty much at capacity?
Ali: So again, we’re looking at working with partners to possibly identify another facility where we can offer these individuals housing. We may schedule a special meeting just on this topic on Nov. 19. We may be able to focus our energies just on that issue that night, rather than to spend until 12 o’clock or 1 o’clock at night at a meeting. Because the public will show up and they’ll tell us what they think about this, just as they did before.
Can you provide us any recent updates on the ongoing effort to return passenger rail service to Peoria?
Ali: Yes, I’m really excited that we’ve finally completed all the tasks for step one; there’s a three-step process in this Corridor Identification Program with the Federal Railroad Administration. Step one is the scope – basically developing the scope and the budget, and through our consultants, we have completed everything; all the tasks have been sent to the FRA. They tell us that within probably another 2-3 weeks, that they will approve those tasks and we’ll move to step two.
Step two is the service delivery plan. That really takes a close look at developing the operations, looking at the corridor, the details of it. Making any adjustments that need to be made, looking at who the railroad partners are – any freight rail owners that we have to work with, beginning those discussions with the freight operators and so forth.
So it’s really a detailed plan, and that step two could take two years. Once we complete that step two, then we go to step three, which is the pre-engineering and environmental analysis. And again, we said from the beginning, ‘this is not something that’s going to happen overnight; it’s going to take time.’ And so that step three could actually take up to 36 months. Hopefully not 36 months; I’m hoping for two-and-two (years each), but these things take time. So we are making progress and once we get done with these three steps, we’re in the pipeline for implementation.
