Neither Johnson nor the Rev. Michael Pfleger – a priest known for his voluminous criticism of Chicago’s violence, unemployment, underperforming schools, gun proliferation and lack of economic development – believe the hires represent a panacea for the city’s crime. The fallout prompted Emanuel to fire his first police superintendent, Garry McCarthy at the end of previous year.
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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.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel gave a preview of his anticipated Thursday speech on public safety Wednesday at Malcolm X College.
Johnson said the new hires will help rebuild trust between the community and his department, which has long struggled with a reputation for police misconduct and brutality, especially after several recent police shootings. Most said they support the concept, but some have concerns about how the cash-strapped city will pay for it.
The violence also comes amid growing distrust between Chicago’s African-American community and the police department following the release late past year of disturbing police dashcam video that showed a white police officer fatally shooting a black teen 16 times on a city street.
To improve the supervision of street-level cops, he said 112 new sergeants and more than 50 lieutenants would be added.
The Chicago Police Department spent a record $116.1 million on overtime in 2015- up 17.2 percent from the previous year – to mask a manpower shortage that has mushroomed under Emanuel with police retirements outpacing hiring by 975 officers.
Police and mayoral spokesmen both said Wednesday that the department also planned to hire 454 more new officers to replace the vacancies created by the supervisory and detective promotions. The city is spending $134 million to get the cops to the streets, but when it comes to curbing the growing violence in the city, the additional officers could be priceless. “But there’s no price for the safety of this city”, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson told the Sun-Times newspaper.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office has not yet detailed how the added positions will be paid for.
It will take at least two years to hire and train all of the new recruits, and it won’t be cheap.
“It’s as essential.as how many officers there are”, Emanuel said.
“That is a question that remains unanswered”, Alderman Danny Solis said before the news conference.
The mayor recently said he has been meeting for weeks with Johnson about hiring officers. Already his tenure has seen a property tax hike and the council approved new water and sewer tax increases earlier this month.
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 US city including more than 500 murders this year, the Chicago Sun-Times reported on Wednesday.
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The president of the Chicago police union applauded Wednesday’s announcement. The department now has about 12,500 officers; Johnson said vacancies will be filled on top of the new hires.
