Weis 'extremely nervous' over police retirements
Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis said today he is “extremely nervous” that a wave of police retirements next year — after an arbitrator rules on the new police contract — will stretch a burgeoning manpower shortage beyond levels he considers safe.
Roughly 1,000 officers are eligible to retire, now that Mayor Daley has promised to extend premium health benefits to officers who call it quits at 55. But, many are waiting until the contract is settled in hopes that a raise will lock in a higher rate of retirement pay.
(Brian Jackson/Sun-Times)
Even before the arbitrator’s ruling, the Police Department has 600 sworn vacancies and is 2,000 officers short of authorized strength counting those on medical leave and limited desk duty each day.
After hiring only 46 police officers this year, Daley’s 2010 budget uses federal stimulus funds to add just 86 officers, 30 of them for the CTA.
That’s nowhere near enough hiring to solve the manpower shortage that Weis fears is about to get dramatically worse.
“I am extremely nervous about the number of officers who may choose to leave, based upon the fact that the contract may be signed in 2010,” Weis told aldermen during a City Council budget hearing.
“There’s conceivably 1,000 officers who could leave. ... We have to be prepared for that type of loss. ... We will work closely with Budget to make sure our hiring plan does not leave us too stripped to provide an effective police force for the city.”
Weis is not the only one who’s nervous about the police manpower shortage. So are Chicago aldermen.
“It truly is unacceptable. We want these numbers filled and filled now. We’ll find the funding for it. If we have to get rid of some of these other departments ... [or cut their budgets in half] to fill these vacancies, we’ll do that,” said Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd).
If police hiring continues at a snail’s pace, the ranks of police brass will get whiter and whiter, said Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (6th).
Already, African Americans comprise only 230 of 1,369 sergeants; 18 of 245 lieutenants; 304 of 1,553 detectives and 9 of 67 captains. Hispanics have 167 sergeants, 17 lieutenants, 215 detectives and 9 captains.
“There is a belief that, in about five or ten years, the make-up of the Police Department is going to reflect that which it did in 1960 when people walked through communities and got the feeling of an occupying force because they don’t see us,” Lyle said.
The burgeoning manpower shortage has intensified calls for Weis to deliver on the controversial promise he made a year ago to realign Chicago’s 281 police beats for the first time since 1978.
Weis saidtoday that he’s finalizing a contract with the PAR Group that will give the firm roughly six months to make recommendations after analyzing crime statistics, calls for service and population trends.
But, he said, “I’m not so sure we need beat realignment. I’m not so sure that moving a particular boundary east or west makes a huge difference. What is important is making sure that our resources are allocated properly and consistent with the threat in the individual communities.”