Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a new tactic yesterday in combating city homicides: Expand the specialized task forces now used in the Englewood and Harrison police districts. While overall city homicides are up 39 percent this calendar year, they are down in these two districts on the city's South and West Sides, respectively. Emanuel partly attributes this decline to specialized forces where police work with federal agents, including U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials.

However, it is not clear what other police districts will have these task forces (the city is split into 25 such districts), and where the city will get the resources to deploy more officers.