Community Voices
A collection of personal photos and comments shared by our photovoice research participants throughout the course of the project. In some cases participants chose to use stock photos as symbolic images to best represent their viewpoints and opinions.
"It be car accidents, it be domestic violence, it be a lot of reasons why you, you need the police help, no matter if you wanna call them or not. It's certain, It's certain situations that you can't avoid calling them, and that you will pray and hope that they will help you..."
"No, I don't feel safe. I don't feel like I could trust anybody."
"There are positive things in our community, development, people working together."
“The schools like the police, but I do feel like teachers, teachers do the same thing. Because a teacher would assume ... I know from personal experience, like, a teacher the same like I just said about the police. They assume you come from a poor neighborhood, or because you Black, or you go to a public school.. Like, I remember a situation when I was a kid, that my auntie actually had to come up to the school because the teacher told me I was a liar.”
"Gas station. Um, it's just, it's just a, a lot of crime just, uh, happen at that gas station...Um, at first it was that they were selling drugs and stuff. They post a security guard there, gang bangers around there."
"And a lot of us. Like, we could just be out a summer night, would turn into a summer morning, we stayed out there. Like, you don't have worry about nobody might coming through a shooting. You don't have to worry about that. Like, now, you don't know what people h- you don't know what people have going on on their spare time.”
“Less funding in the neighborhood. Like, I had a picture of a school, an empty school 'cause there's a lot of empty schools on the West Side now…So, they shutdown schools and everything. So, like, a lot of, uh, then, like, the potholes in the community.. When I go out to the suburbs to my mother's house or something compared to being in the neighborhood and everything, there's not a lot of empty schools out there."
"We, we, they have polices volunteer with us to, to help the kids, you know, that communicate, you know, better with the kids during the summertime. They keep them in activities and things like that."
“You know, it's not just all about, about police. It's about interacting. 'Cause you all human beings. You know, at the end of the day, when you take your uniform off and I'm coming from work and I, whoever I work at, at the end of the day, we still human beings. So we all should be treated equally, no matter what job we have, no matter what job we have, what job I have, we still are human beings. You know what I'm saying?”
"That the police shouldn't have to do everything alone, there should be like, the people, us people need to do more too, like we need to get off… and check out and do more. It's not just, we just can't keep blaming the police for what's happening."
"So, I, you kind of feel powerless, you kind of feel helpless, you kind of feel, you kind of feel anger. You have no power. You don't have no power. You don't have no power. You at they mercy, their feeling for the day…"
"No, I do not. I don't feel safe. I don't feel like I could trust anybody. No, I don't. I don't feel safe. With the community, with the people I grew up in, it's a lot of things changed with me coming up, me growing up. A lot of things has changed."
“The gas station, the gas stations are, like a hangout spot.. it's dangerous for the people that wanna get gas, asking for money, the ladies scared, they got their purse, they scared to, to, to interact with the gas station because it's, it's probably for to go get your gas, but the other people isn't gonna come in there just for the g- gas, they be looking for a vic in the gas station. So it's dangerous just going to get some gas. It's not safe.”
"A lot of work needs to be done in the community” ,"There wasn't a store around- you couldn't buy milk and bread for at least a month.”
"Like, why is that an empty vacant lot? That could be a learning center. That could be any type of center that could help the kids. But no, it's just sitting there. It's just abandoned and nothing is going on with it."
"They just sit there," getting paid to sit there, police are scared, are police doing their jobs?” “Police unwilling to endanger themselves, Police witnessing a shooting- no intervention. They ain't gon' be there when you need them. You'll be saying, "Where they was ... where y'all was at when they just snatched my purse?" They come, they come too little too late. They hang out, they'll post up for a minute. Then they going about their business. And then when you come, you'll be like, "Man, uh, there's no police even come to help me”
“Even if you're not doing anything you just still get nervous because it's like you just never know even kids, like, oh, it's the police. So it's just that type of response that we give due to the things that they've done and that we've seen. And um, it traumatizes is in some type of way to just always react like that.” (Stock photo submitted)
"I also feel like a lot of people misjudge police because, again, they're our friend when we need them. But then we don't, but then when something bad happen, we hate them."
"Don't want my kids to be a death of police brutality. But me being a woman that has been with abusive men, I do like the police. So that's why I'm sit here ... Like, I'm, I don't know really how to feel on the police, because they give me mixed emotions." (Stock photo submitted)
"This was me, I'm just conflicted, confused about police. For one thing, they do good, we need the police, they do good. But sometimes I think they over-abuse their power."
"That property, just buildings on Madison, they, it's landmarks. People stay in there that was supposed to be important, but I think all peoples are important. They got building that they just can't turn out, they can't do nothing with. So you just going to let it sit there? Let's protect the building. Them kids went to school ... I went to school there, so I thought I bring this picture to forefront of… school. We want, we want for somebody to tell us wha- what ca- what can we do with that space. Instead of they got it all…up. The gym, and they (laughs) they got the basketball court outside. They got this business, this particular business shut down. And it could be used with some, some, some good."
“The gas station is not safe in our communities at all. They have security guards, but they beat, they beat security guard up. He's standing there t- trying to make a living, trying to protect their stuff, then he mess around and becoming for him. Even the, even the security, he need security. He can't even secure hisself. So, that's the issues in our neighborhood. The gas stations is ... you know, it's like, "I'm going to get some I'm going to play the lottery."
"Oh, the police were so wrong for shooting this 13-year-old boy??" First of all, why was this 13-year-old outside carjacking anybody, pulling out guns, carjacking anybody or doing anything? Where was his parents at? So, everybody always got something to say about the police, but what about this 13-year-old boy just carjacked somebody in Oak Park with a 3-year-old baby up in the car behind two police officers, but now, now everybody bashing the police. …Where was his mom at… at 10:25 last night? Why was he outside? …What if my daughter was up, and they called me? Somebody carjacked my, carjacked me and road off with my 3-year-old baby up in the car, and harmed two other people trying to get away? You think I'm gonna care about him being shot? No, shoot his ass, 'cause why he just carjack me and take my daughter?"
Hyper-Surveilled and Under-Protected
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation IRL
Cohort 5
This project was funded by University of Illinois, Chicago's Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement.