NW Side Cops Worry About Redistribution
CHICAGO (STMW) - Police Superintendent Jody Weis' proposal to redeploy officers from safer neighborhoods to high-crime areas drew outrage from a Northwest Side alderman, "concern" from a police sergeant running for the 41st Ward City Council seat, and a wait-and-see attitude from the district commander.
"At this point I really don't know what to say," said Jefferson Park (16th) District Police Cmdr. David McNaughton, two days after Weis floated the idea during City Council budget hearings "We haven't been given any information yet that would lead us to believe we'd be one of the districts they'd be drawing from."
That's even though the 16th is the largest district in the city, with one of the lowest crime rates.
"Who knows? The crime rate may not be the only thing they're looking at," said McNaughton, who will be the one responsible for implementing on the Northwest Side whatever is decided downtown. "Everyone thinks they'd be looking at 16, but I don't think that's necessarily where they're going.
"Maybe I'm a cockeyed optimist, but ... ."
McNaughton said he's heard nothing from Chicago Police Department higher-ups and added that "for the most part we've been spared" in previous "reallocations," as Weis described the plan to the aldermen during discussions on how to continue providing good police service with as many as 2,300 fewer officers short of the department's 13,000-man authorized strength.
Richard Gonzalez, an aldermanic hopeful and Wood Street (13th) District sergeant with 18 years on the job, wasn't quite as optimistic as McNaughton.
"Without having seen an actual plan, I can say I am opposed to any plan to take police out of the 16th District," he said, adding that since hiring 2,300 more officers is financially out of the question at the moment, he'd give every off-duty officer a police radio they could use to request backup on a radio any time they see a "situation," as opposed to calling 911 on a cell phone and waiting for a dispatcher.
"There's not a police officer in Chicago who isn't going to take action right away if he or she sees a crime," said Gonzalez.
He predicted: "You could potentially have 8,000 more police officers able to act quickly at virtually no cost. It's not a permanent solution, but it's an improvement."
Brian Doherty, 41st Ward alderman, was even more adamant.
"We've been fighting this battle for 20 years," he said. "It's not going to happen if I have anything to say about it."
Doherty, the city's only Republican alderman, is running for 10th District state senator against the recently appointed John Mulroe and won't seek another term in the February city elections.
Doherty said the 16th District is already "stressed to the limit" in terms of manpower and would quickly lose its status as one of the safest districts in the city if any more officers were sent elsewhere.
"They're going to leave us unprotected. And no matter how many cops they send to those trouble spots in other parts of the city, it doesn't seem to make any difference," he said.
And while a number of police officers live in the 16th District, he said, "it's not fair for them to have to be on the job when they're supposed to be off work. Sometimes we get punished for our success. We take care of our homes and watch our own neighborhood, and we get punished with higher property taxes and fewer police."
Just how many police officers there are in the 16th District on any given day remained unclear. McNaughton declined to discuss staffing "for the same reason an Army general wouldn't give the numbers of troops he has available."
But as far as Doherty is concerned, any personnel reduction in the 16th District would be unacceptable.
"If the professional criminals know we are not protected, they're going to come here," Doherty said. "But Weis still works for the mayor, and we (the City Council) still control the (department's) pocketbook."
-- Pioneer Press, via the Sun-Times Media Wire
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2010. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
