Let’s be careful out there
Wednesday, Sep 21, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Sun-Times…
The Chicago Police Department will launch a two-year hiring blitz that will add 970 police officers to confront a 50 percent spike in homicides and improve detectives’ ability to solve crimes, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
The hiring surge — the biggest since the mid-1980s — marks a turnaround for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who has relied on police overtime in a failed attempt to stop the cycle of gang violence on the streets.
Over the next two years, the police department will add 516 patrol officers, 92 field-training officers, 112 sergeants, 50 lieutenants and 200 detectives. […]
Chicago Police officers spend six months in the police academy before they hit the streets for a probationary period that lasts a year. To get reinforcements on the street as quickly as possible, [Police Supt. Eddie Johnson] said he’s drafting plans to shift the police academy at 1300 W. Jackson into high-gear.
More police would be a good thing, but lots of too-quickly trained cops on the street could do a whole lot of harm. Yes, there’s a crisis. Don’t make it worse, please.
* Meanwhile…
The Chicago Police Department announced Sunday that it will spend about $8 million to buy body cameras for the rest of the force, a rollout officials unveiled though it won’t be complete for years and they aren’t sure who will get the new equipment next. […]
The Police Department started issuing body cameras to officers as part of a pilot program in the Northwest Side Shakespeare District at the beginning of 2015, and about 2,000 cameras are now in use in seven of the city’s 22 police districts. Johnson said the department will use “CPD’s operating budget, as well as grant funding” totaling about $8 million to buy about 5,000 additional cameras. He said the body cameras will come “bundled” with Tasers for officers as well.
* Second City Cop does the math…
So the total number of body-cams is supposed to be around 7,000 […]
Correct us if we’re wrong, but Rahm keeps spouting the line that CPD is manned at 12,000 officers. Every officer is slated to get a camera - not like radios that are passed along watch to watch with a fresh battery. So that’s just over half of our manpower to be equipped with a body camera.
We read once that the US military needed six soldiers at the “tail” to field a single fighting soldier at the “teeth.” CPD isn’t fighting an overseas battle far from friendly shores and flying in supplies, ammo, armor, etc., so that nearly 1-to-1 that CPD appears to be operating at seems a bit….inefficient.
* Back to that Sun-Times story from above…
The first-year cost will be $138,000 per officer including salary, benefits and supervision. So the 970 additional officers will carry a price tag of almost $134 million.
So, if 2CC is right, couldn’t the city save more money by using lower paid civilians instead of 5,000 or so highly paid cops (the approximate number who aren’t getting body cams)?
- Tsavo - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 11:34 am:
This was from Second City Cop in July.
TUESDAY, JULY 19, 2016
Shortages on the Horizon
This popped up in the comment section a few days ago:
So drove a copper to the 4th floor to retire the other day. Came back with 2 gems.
1) Payouts on CU are taking 16 weeks, instead of the usual 6. (Excuse was they had a lot of people retire in May/Jun
2) Total number of coppers signed up (so Far) to retire in Jan 2017?? In excess of 1000. Yes, that’s One Thousand! How many are presently in the academy? How much are our taxes going to go up to pay the pension fund with 1000 more retirees?
One-thousand retirees? By next January? Is that even possible? We’re assuming it’s because the “55 and out” provision expires, but do we really have a thousand cops at or over 55?
- TheGoodLieutenant - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 11:40 am:
Will the hiring even keep up with the attrition of the retiring?
- Reality - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 11:42 am:
What’s the pension plan I might be interested
- RNUG - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 11:43 am:
== So, if 2CC is right, couldn’t the city save more money by using lower paid civilians instead of 5,000 or so highly paid cops (the approximate number who aren’t getting body cams)? ==
Think I made that point yesterday.
To the issue of rookies, hopefully the administration will either partner them with very experienced officers or, if solo, put them in lower stress neighborhoods to gain some experience before throwing them on the front lines in high risk areas.
- Amalia - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 11:46 am:
there’s lots of disagreement over whether those answering the phones in the District should be police. does not make sense to me. but it is a way for those who were on the street and somehow should no longer be on the street to keep seniority. and that means it costs more.
- Hard working Art Student - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 11:54 am:
I can’t say I’m thrilled considering how the cops in my neighborhood like to act sometimes. I live in the Austin neighborhood and have seen some moments of unneeded escalation, overkill and caviler behavior. I am a law abiding resident of a sometimes rough neighborhood, I don’t feel safe near the police and I find that disturbing.
- crazybleedingheart - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 11:57 am:
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/09/20/the-most-dangerous-neighborhood-the-most-inexperienced-cops#.3RpcqrqmV
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 12:36 pm:
=So, if 2CC is right, couldn’t the city save more money by using lower paid civilians instead of 5,000 or so highly paid cops (the approximate number who aren’t getting body cams)?=
This would be a better way to get more officers on the street quickly, by moving civilians into non law enforcement support roles while new recruits get up to speed.
- Ghost - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 12:45 pm:
the cost is way way low. a the police pension pays a cops 80% percent of their last days pay afyer 20 years of service. so hired in toyr 20s retire on basically full pay in tour 40s…. so the payout is high and goes on for a long time. to cover that pension expense you need to double the salary expense.
which is a long way of saying it woukd be hugely cheaper to add private citizens
- Behind the Scenes - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 12:57 pm:
About those 970 ‘hires’… 516 patrol officers will be new hires, but I doubt the 92 field-training officers, 112 sergeants, 50 lieutenants and 200 detectives, will be coming straight from the street. Most likely promotions which will leave 454 patrol vacancies for the rookies to fill. Simple math. Not a large gain in street forces.
- Anon - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 1:01 pm:
Creating a bureaucratic corps is a great idea.
Not everyone needs to be a shielded officer.
- Payback - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 1:01 pm:
“The Chicago Police Department announced Sunday that it will spend about $8 million to buy body cameras for the rest of the force…”
What good will the body cams do if police can just delete if it makes them look bad? Or just “forget” to turn them on in the first place?
I don’t know why Kwame Raoul is touted as the great liberal civil rights protector of the black community, when his SB1304 Body Cam bill does not have criminal penalties for police who destroy or alter video evidence.
- old pol - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 1:12 pm:
The historical problem with “civilianization” of the police force has been the political obstacle to reduce the sworn count. WHen a civilian is hired to do an admisnistrative function performed by a sworn officer, the community expects that sworn officer to be deployed to the streets. Hiring 5,000 civilians does not save money unless you cut the corresponding sworn payroll equivalent.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 1:32 pm:
===Hiring 5,000 civilians does not save money unless you cut the corresponding sworn payroll equivalent. ===
Or deploy some of them to street duty. And if they can’t do street duty, get them off payroll as a officers and make ‘em civilians.
- Small town taxpayer - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 1:40 pm:
If the new hires can retire in 20 years what effect will that have on the funding of the pension system? Will the recently authorized phased-in of a $540 million property tax for the police and fire retirement systems be sufficient to also cover the pension costs of the new hires?
- Moby - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 2:00 pm:
I know this is an oversimplified statement, but $134 million could go towards securing an awful lot of HS diplomas, associates degrees, trade degrees and bachelors degrees for troubled inner city youth. Something to think about.
- Last Bull Moose - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 2:26 pm:
Has anyone thought through what changes need to be made in the rest of the system? More cops on the street should mean more arrests. That means more trials, more prosecutors and more public defenders. Do we have more judges? Where do we put those convicted?
One of the recommendations when Quinn was looking to reduce the prison population was too have more parole officers in place BEFORE the release. That did not happen and was part of the problem with the program.
- City Zen - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 3:07 pm:
==totaling about $8 million to buy about 5,000 additional cameras.==
I hope CPD is sourcing those cameras locally from recently Chicago HQ’ed Motorola Solutions.
- Original Rambler - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 5:44 pm:
My understanding is the FOP will aggressively fight any attempt to transfer any “officer” duty to non-sworn personnel. Protect the job you know.