Longtime Chicago police Officer and Cmdr. Dana Starks was the department’s first deputy superintendent — its No. 2 leader — for four years before leading the department as interim superintendent from 2007 until 2008.
Starks, 74, died Oct. 14, according to a statement from the Police Department.
Born in the South Side Englewood neighborhood, Starks grew up in the Altgeld Gardens housing complex, according to a November 2003 Tribune article.
Starks joined the Police Department in 1977, spending most of his early career as a patrol officer and then as a sergeant, working on the South and Southwest sides. In 1979, he was a tactical officer in the Grand Crossing District.
In 1984, Starks ran for state representative in the Democratic primary for the 36th District on the South Side, losing to incumbent state Rep. Howard Brookins Sr.
Starks was promoted in 2000 to commander in the Harrison District on the West Side, traditionally one of the city’s highest-crime areas.
In 2003, the Tribune noted that the Harrison District and one other district — just 8% of the city’s 25 districts — accounted for nearly a fifth of the city’s homicides. The deadliest district was the one Starks had been overseeing.
“I would estimate that something like half the residents of this district have had some connection with the criminal justice system,” Starks told the Tribune’s Charles Leroux in 2003. “The majority of the people who commit homicide, and the victims of homicide, are ex-offenders involved in the drug trade.”
As commander of the Harrison District, Starks worked with community and religious groups to help develop the city’s first Cease Fire Zone, a move that helped reduce shootings in the area by 67% within its first 10 months.
In 2003, retiring police Superintendent Terry Hillard tapped Starks to become deputy chief for the Grand Central Area on the Northwest Side, a role that involved him managing patrol division operations on the Northwest Side and parts of the West Side.
Later in 2003, newly hired Superintendent Philip Cline quickly promoted Starks from the Grand Central Area headquarters to be first deputy superintendent — which is second in command in the department. The first deputy superintendent role oversaw patrol operations, which accounted for about 9,000 of the department’s 13,000-plus officers.
The move paired Cline, whose background was in detective and other investigative work, with Starks, a street-savvy former commander of a high-crime area. Starks also had a strong relationship with Cline, having been involved in several anti-violence initiatives that Cline had championed, including Project Safe Neighborhoods, a federal gun prosecution program.
“There is only one job I ever wanted in this department. It wasn’t the superintendent’s job. It was this job, the first deputy,” Starks said at a 2003 news conference, when he was introduced by Mayor Richard M. Daley and Cline. “I’m a street guy. I am a street cop, and I feel I am able to have stronger impact at the first deputy level as opposed to the superintendent’s job.”
Starks was part of the 2004 initiative to install more than six dozen surveillance cameras in high-crime areas, funded by money seized from drug dealers. After the first 30 cameras were installed, calls relating to narcotics from the immediate areas fell by 76%, with serious crimes dropping by 17%, Starks told the Tribune in 2004.
Initiatives like that one helped contribute to some favorable statistics that Starks was able to attribute to the department’s continued focus on eliminating gangs, guns and drugs from at-risk communities. He also urged residents to take part in the city’s community police initiative, CAPS. The low crime rate continued into 2005.
“One murder, one shooting, no matter the community, is one too many,” Starks told the Tribune in 2005. “Our citywide progress over the last few years is notable, but not for victims of crime who continue to live in fear of violence.”
In 2005, Cline pivoted Starks’ job duties away from department management and toward strengthening relations with community members. In particular, Cline directed Starks to work to invigorate the community policing strategy.
In 2007, Starks and another officer were following up on a program allowing citizens to turn in guns to the Police Department without facing charges when they spotted a two-story building on the Far South Side that was on fire. Starks and the officer went into the burning building to rescue three people.
In 2007, amid a wave of video images of police brutality by Chicago officers being shared on the internet and cable television, Cline announced his resignation. Several months later, Starks was tapped by Daley’s office to take over as interim superintendent. Daley chose Starks for the post after he rejected three nominees for police superintendent sent to him by the Chicago Police Board, and Daley wound up asking the Police Board to continue its search for candidates.
As interim superintendent, Starks disbanded an elite drug and gang unit under state and federal investigation for allegations ranging from armed violence and home invasion to kidnapping and plotting a murder-for-hire.
Starks retired from the Police Department altogether in early 2008 upon Daley’s appointment of Jody Weis as the new police superintendent. Weis began work Feb. 1, 2008.
Upon retiring, Daley appointed Starks to chair the Chicago Commission on Human Relations. He held that role until 2011.
Information on survivors was not available.
A service was held.
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.