The biggest hiring surge since the mid-1980s, the department plans to bring on 970 new officers during the next two years.
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Chicago Superintendent, Eddie Johnson is scheduled to share further details about the hiring plan later Wednesday at a news conference outside of CPD headquarters.
The mayor’s address is also expected to promise more resources for mentoring and educational opportunities for young people most threatened by violence in those communities.
At a Tuesday night department roll call, Johnson told officers, “Don’t be misled, it’s going to take a whole lot of pieces to stem the violence that we have in the city”, according to CNN affiliate WLS-TV. “The gangs are out there trying to be both role models, mentors and a family for these kids”.
The hiring plan includes more than 500 new police officers, and hundreds more to beef up the ranks of detectives and supervisors. But in recent years it has relied on overtime to increase its staffing levels and combat a rising crime problem. The officer was charged with murder, but only after a judge ordered the public release of the graphic squad vehicle video previous year.
“I owe you a department that is stronger in numbers, equipped for the 21st century, richer in skills and best practices to manage and challenge peacefully and honorably”, Johnson said.
Chicago has seen a dramatic rise in the number of shootings and homicides this year. This year alone, there have been more than 500 homicides – compared to 491 in all of 2015.
Emanuel has said the violence spike was new, noting the number of homicides in 2014 was among the lowest on record. That year closed with roughly 400 murders.
Activists with Black Lives Matter Chicago say the city’s plan to add almost 1,000 new positions at the police department isn’t the way to stop the violence.
“I think we can shift that overtime money to pay for, without having to raise additional revenue, to pay for this aggressive rollout of new officers”, said Ald.
Johnson said he had no information on how Chicago plans to pay for the new officers.
The department will add 516 patrol officers, 92 field-training officers, 112 sergeants, 50 lieutenants and 200 detectives, police spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a post on social media.
Johnson said that these new officers would result in an overall increase of sworn officer positions from around 12,500 to around 13,500.
What’s missing is how the cash-strapped city will fund the officers.
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. Officers spend six months in police academy before a year-long probationary period patrolling city streets.
“Fighting crime requires a partnership between the police and the community”, Emanuel said according to the remarks. “What more policing will accomplish is more violence, more lock ups and more trauma for our already suffering communities”, the statement said.
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