CHICAGO Chicago’s police department plans to hire almost 1,000 officers over the next two years in a bid to combat a surge of violence in the third-largest USA city including more than 500 murders this year, the Chicago Sun-Times reported on Wednesday.
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To address a boost in homicides, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) will add 516 patrol officers, 92 field-training officers, 112 sergeants, 50 lieutenants, and 200 detectives, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Adam Collins, communications director for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, said the mayor has been “very clear that his priority in the budget is going to be public safety” and that the additional officers will come “without an increase in general revenue taxes”, including sales, property, and gasoline.
Alderman Danny Solis says the cost question remains unanswered. According to him, the hiring binge is a task handed down from Mayor Rahm Emanuel, with a commitment to give the resources needed to make it happen.
Johnson said the hiring will also reduce police overtime, which has cost hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years and, cops say, exhausted some of them.
Eddie Johnson says more officers are necessary at a time like this in Chicago.
The mayor and the city’s police force received harsh criticism of their handling of the matter after a video was released showing Chicago police officers shooting McDonald, an unarmed African-American man.
Overall, the city has recorded more than 500 homicides this year – higher than in all of 2015. But after several years in which police retirements have well outpaced new hires, the move will put the number of city police at about the same level as that of 2011.
Police officials said they plan to hire new officers to replace those who are promoted. The former White House chief of staff said Wednesday that the approach to crime in the city has to be comprehensive.
On the tail of the bloodiest summer in Chicago in 20 years, police believe there’s strength in numbers. “What more policing will accomplish is more violence, more lock ups and more trauma for our already suffering communities”.
However, activists who have called for additional community resources and leadership changes said resources should be used elsewhere.
To make matters worse, the police department reportedly only solves about 30 to 40 percent of homicides, which are mostly fueled by gangs and the drug trade.
Emanuel’s speech is also expected to touch on some non-policing approaches to crime, including job creation and an expansion of mentoring opportunities.
The fallout over the video prompted Emanuel to fire his first police superintendent, Garry McCarthy at the end of a year ago.
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