Daley: Police hiring to stay slow
BUDGET | Even planned snail's pace will lessen
After hiring only 46 Chicago Police officers all year, Mayor Daley acknowledged Monday that the slowdown would continue in 2010, dramatically impacting the city's ability to fill 591 police vacancies.
"We will be filling them, but not at a faster rate," the mayor said after announcing unrelated budget moves.
(Brian Jackson/Sun-Times)
Daley was noncommittal when asked whether Chicago could afford to hire any police officers -- beyond the 80 whose salaries will be paid by federal stimulus funds -- and still honor his promise to hold the line on all taxes, fines and fees.
"We don't know yet. . . . Other cities are . . . closing fire stations and laying firemen and policemen off. We see that continually all over the country," he said.
To save $10 million, Daley's 2009 budget slowed police hiring to a crawl -- with only 200 officers expected to be hired all year.
But, as city revenues plummeted, City Hall opted not to maintain even that snail's pace. Only one class of 46 officers entered the police academy this year.
As of Oct. 9, the Chicago Police Department was 591 officers short of its authorized strength of 13,500 -- and that's not counting hundreds of other officers on duty- and non-duty disability.
Daley had hoped to receive federal stimulus funds to hire 400 new officers, under a three-year, $106 million grant that requires those officers to remain on the city payroll for at least one additional year.
Instead, Chicago got only enough federal money to hire 50 officers for general purposes and 30 more to patrol the CTA.
Fraternal Order of Police President Mark Donahue said Daley's decision to maintain the hiring slowdown through 2010 is "extremely unfortunate" at a time when youth violence continues unabated.
"Public safety should be the No. 1 priority of any city administration," he said.
Reminded that other cities and suburbs are laying off police officers, Donahue said, "That's not an argument. That's an excuse. Just because others are doing it doesn't make their citizens any safer."