Chicago‘s wealthiest citizens are investing millions in its poorest neighborhoods in an attempt to help solve the city’s spiraling crime crisis.

Billionaire businessman James Crown, who leads the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, has made it his goal to make Chicago ‘the Safest Big City in America.’

The tycoon, whose family was ranked the 34th richest in America by Forbes in 2020 with an estimated worth of $10.2 billion, plans to leverage his national influence and work with other businessmen to combat crime in the murder capitol of the U.S.

Crown introduced his crime-fighting plan Thursday, announcing his goal of reducing the number of 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ings in Chicago to fewer than 400 a year within five years.

The Civic Committee spent six months researching and interviewing—collaborating with city leaders such as former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, former Chicago Police Supt. David Brown, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, and more.

Billionaire businessman James Crown, who leads the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, will be investing millions in an effort to reduce the soaring crime rate in Chicago

Crown, whose worth an estimated $10.2 billion, announced his goal of reducing the number of 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ings in Chicago to fewer than 400 a year within five years

The strategy the committee focused on included job creation in high-risk areas, substantial funding for violence intervention programs, bolstering law enforcement agencies, and investing in disadvantaged communities.

The Civic Committee is a group made up of senior executives of Chicago’s most prominent businesses. Some of the wealthiest residents are joining their resources  together to combat crime.

‘Historically, the Civic Committee has not been involved in public safety matters,’ Crown said to Chicago Sun Times on Wednesday. ‘I gotta say this with real humility: We’re late to the conversation. We’re late to the understanding of some of these things.’

‘You’ve got altruism,’ Crown said. ‘But you’ve also got the enlightened self-interest of: I want to be safe, I want my workers to come to work, I want the tourists to patronize my business, whatever that might be.’

The Commercial Club members are also tasked with the responsibility of finding  jobs for ‘alumni’ of violence intervention programs which they plan to establish in high-crime areas.

More than 10,000 people in Chicago would be candidates for such jobs, according to the Chicago Sun Times.

The committee plans to combine ‘tens of millions’ of dollars between the members, but no exact figure has been established. While the plan is still in its early stages, the group said they expect to meet with Chicago’s mayor, Brandon Johnson in the coming weeks.

‘We resisted the temptation to just declare a shiny number up front,’ Crown said to the Chicago Sun times.

Another initiative the committee plans to address is uplifting morale within Chicago Police Department, according to Robert Boik, the group’s vice president for public safety, who formerly was head of the Police Department’s Office of Constitutional Policing.

‘I can tell you officers are sick and tired of going from trauma to trauma to trauma,’ Boik said to the Chicago Sun Times.

‘And so they’re looking for solutions just as much as everybody else is. There are a number of avenues to strengthen the Police Department and have constitutional policing and full compliance with the consent decree.’

Chicago’s Mayor, Brandon Johnson, who was inaugurated May 15, blamed the city’s poverty problems and surging crime rates on businesses that don’t pay tax. The committee plan to meet with the Mayor this week.

As crime continued to soar through the last years of her term, Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot was heavily criticized for promoting other matters than public safety, including a citywide karaoke contest and dancing in the street during a festival

The soaring crime has led to some of the high-profile residents to flee the city.

Illinois’ former richest man, Ken Griffin, left last year and moved his billion dollar firms Citadel and Citadel Securities with him to Florida.

The father-of-three, who is worth around $30 billion, also tore into the Chicago schools’ system for pushing ‘woke ideology’ on his 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren.

Griffin recently donated millions of dollars to fund technology improvements for the Chicago Police Department and launch a training program at the University of Chicago for police leaders across the country, according to the Chicago Sun Times.

Mayor Johnson, who was inaugurated May 15, raised eyebrows in April by blaming the city’s poverty problems and surging crime rates on businesses that don’t pay tax.

He argued the city doesn’t have money to solve its problem because ’70 percent of large corporations in the state of Illinois don’t pay a corporate tax’.

‘It’s that type of restraint on our budget that has caused the type if disinvestment that has led to poverty, of course that has led to violence,’ said Johnson, who didn’t provide a source supporting his claim.

Crime continues to soar in Chicago, which has led the nation in homicides for the 11th straight year, with residents frustrated by the Government’s lack of action

Chicago has led the nation for the 11th straight year with the highest number of homicides of any city, according to a report published this year.

Chicago had 697 total homicides in 2022, higher than Philadelphia (516), New York City (438), Houston (435), and Los Angeles (382).

The last time Chicago had fewer than 400 homicides was in 1965.

Responding to gun shots also costs the city astronomical amounts, which comes from tax payer dollars. According to a 2019 estimate by the University of Chicago, that cost amounts to about $1.5 million per person.

‘This isn’t a cure-all solution for public safety, but it’s a recognition that the business community has to do its part,’ Boik told Fox 32.

This isn’t the first time businesses attempted to take on the issue of crime in Chicago. Back in 2012, former mayor Rahm Emanuel requested local business leaders raise $50 million to help at-risk kids and reduce violent crimes over the next five years.

The results of this initiative were insignificant over time as homicide rates continued to rise.

In preparation for Memorial Day weekend, Chicago implemented peacekeepers this year after experiencing it’s most violent Memorial Day weekend in five years, with over 50 people shot.

Chicago’s crime crisis has only increased with the influx of migrants, which has also further strained budgets.

More than 8,000 migrants have arrived in Chicago since August, which is when southern states started to bus asylum seekers north.

New footage shows a Chicago police station filled with mattresses and dozens of illegal migrants, as the city struggles to house the hundreds of border crossers arriving there each day.

Officials in Chicago have said they cannot afford to rent hotel rooms for the migrants who have arrived in their city and have pushed for more federal funds to cover costs.

Chicago’s crime crisis has only increased with the influx of more than 8,000 migrants, which has also further strained budgets

According to a 2019 estimate by the University of Chicago, that cost of responding to gun shots in Chicago amounts to about $1.5 million per person.

Due to the lack of available shelters, some migrants have turned to police stations for a safe place to sleep.

As crime continued to soar through the last years of her term, former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was heavily criticized for promoting other matters than public safety, including a citywide karaoke contest and dancing in the street during a festival.

Lightfoot initially faced intense backlash after she called to cut the budget of police departments in 2021, a movement that also resulted in officers quitting the force and violent crime to spike further.

In attempt to rebound from this decision, the former mayor decided to ‘refund the police’ and hire more officers, but the move did little to reduce crime.

Nearly all crime increased in Chicago since the same time in 2022: rapes have shot up by 16 percent, robberies are up 13 percent, with aggravated battery and burglaries both up 11 percent. Theft in the windy city is up 31 percent, and vehicle thefts, specifically, have soared up 143 percent.