Billionaire Ken Griffin is giving $10 million to help Chicago police deal with gun violence in the city where his hedge fund is based.
The money will go to a program that collects and analyzes gunshot data in high-crime districts with the goal of preventing and responding to shootings. The gift also provides for mental-health treatment and stress management for officers.
“No child, anywhere, should be afraid to walk to school or play outside,” Griffin, 49, founder of Citadel LLC, said Wednesday in a statement. He earlier donated $15 million for bike paths and soccer fields in Chicago.
The gunshot analysis — a collaboration between the police and the University of Chicago Crime Lab — began last year in the two districts where almost a quarter of the city’s 762 homicides took place in 2016. Murders in the city are down 17 percent this year through March compared with the same period of 2017.
Griffin joined Mayor Rahm Emanuel at the 25th District police station to announce the gift. Other urban labs at the University of Chicago address issues including education, health and poverty.
