Illinois State Troopers Help Chicago Police Curb Rising Violence

Chicago police are now being assisted by Illinois state troopers to control rising violence in the city. Earlier this week, state police made several arrests and tracked gang members. State Police Director Larry Trent says he and Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis spent two weeks working out the collaboration.

TRENT: It's certainly not to replace CPD in any way, we can't do that. It's as an adjunct to that and we look forward to continuing that cooperation.

Yesterday Governor Rod Blagojevich called on state lawmakers to pass a plan to fund an additional 500 state troopers to help curb gang violence in high-crime areas.

BLAGOJEVICH: We have great expectations that they'll do the right thing and doing the right thing is to have more police officers trained to be able to take on that war against the gang bangers.

The effort comes as new statistics show homicides are up in Chicago.

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