Daley: Cops assigned to Obama transition duty aren't being pulled off the streets
Mayor Daley said Tuesday he is honored and “excited” that Barack Obama has chosen Chicago as his transition headquarters and denied that providing security for the president-elect is straining already depleted police resources.
The massive undertaking has involved 100 Chicago Police officers at a time when the police department has more than 400 sworn vacancies and police hiring has slowed to a crawl because of budget constraints.
(AP)
Despite Daley's promise to add 75 police officers in 2008, the Police Department has not even kept pace with attrition. The mayor’s $5.9 billion budget counts on saving $10 million by hiring just 200 officers during all of 2009.
“This is a great honor…We’re excited about him being here. This is his transition. He could go to Washington, D.C…He’s not going to buy right into Washington. He’s here and he has people from all walks of life coming here. It is putting us on a global map more than anything else,” Daley said.
“In Washington, D.C., the Secret Service [would] be doing most of this — even outside the buildings. We’ve taken that responsibility and they’re going to reimburse us for that… We’ll utilize resources from headquarters and the training academy until next week. [After that], off-duty officers will be compensated at time-and-a- half, to be paid by the federal government. This is a temporary measure that does not take any officers off Chicago streets.”
Last week, the Fraternal Order of Police raised questions about the number of officers who have been pulled out of already understaffed neighborhood police districts to provide security for Obama’s transition to the White House.
About 60 officers have been temporarily assigned to the area around Obama's transition office at the Kluczynski Federal Building, with 40 more were assigned to Obama's Kenwood home.
Weis responded by saying he's developing a program to have his officers provide security for Obama only on their days off. Until then, the job will be done by a graduating class of 75 police recruits and by officers still assigned to desk jobs, the superintendent said.
Also on Tuesday, Daley strongly disagreed with Weis’ recent statement that, “If a gang is dealing drugs and not killing anyone…that’s not on our priority list.”
The superintendent made the comment to the City Club of Chicago while describing his plan to target the most violent street gangs to reverse a 16 percent surge in Chicago homicides.
“Gang activity and drug activity and gun activity is all together. It’s drugs and guns. That has become a major issue in this country — not just in Chicago but in the suburban area, collar counties. It’s destroying another generation of young people,” the mayor said, at an unrelated City Hall news conference.
“Especially in an economy where it gets tough, people will go to a lot of substance abuse….So, you have to be very careful because you want to really protect a lot of people who are in dire straits….A lot of people take this real personal…when they lose their jobs and lose their home…They’ll go to alcohol and drugs.”
Daley is a former law-and-order states attorney who has crusaded against gangs, guns and drugs during nearly two decades as mayor.
Asked whether drug-dealing by gangs remains on his priority list, Daley said, “Oh, yeah. It does.”
Weis’ remarks have been ridiculed on a police blog, but aides said they were taken out of context.
“His statement was directed in the context of prioritization--not importance. Both are equally important for police response and both contribute to violence. Gang violence fuels both, which is why we are focusing on strategies to address gang trends,” said Police Department spokesperson Monique Bond.