ALDERMAN TO RAHM: SEND COPS FOR KEEPS
Beale wants officers permanently reassigned to violence-plagued South, West sides
Mayor Rahm Emanuel was urged Wednesday to permanently reassign police officers to gang-ravaged South Side and West Side districts instead of taking the political path of least resistance and assigning 600 additional officers only temporarily.
“We cannot continue to just move things around temporarily to get us past the weekend. We need a bold approach to make the entire city safe by putting ’em where they’re needed and not where they’re wanted,” said Far South Side Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), former chairman of the City Council’s Police Committee.
“You go downtown and you still see an officer on every corner. You see ’em on the Riverwalk. If you go into the community, you don’t have that same presence. We need to make this entire city safe and move those resources around from one end to the other.”
Beale said the reallocation Police Supt. Eddie Johnson promised two years ago — but failed to deliver — can be accomplished without putting North Side police districts at risk.
Whether local aldermen will stand for it in the run-up to the 2019 election — or whether Emanuel would risk the political fall-out — is another story entirely.
“They’re gonna scream bloody murder. I get that because they feel that their community is being sacrificed and it’s not,” Beale said of his colleagues.
“Our city has a black eye and we need to heal that black eye. Sometimes you have to p--- some people off in order to do the right thing. Leadership is about making decisions that are unpopular. It’s an unpopular decision to move officers away from certain areas. But, it will be beneficial to the entire city.”
Among those already screaming is Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41st), whose Far Northwest Side ward also includes the Jefferson Park District.
“The 16th District is the largest district with the least amount of police officers. Just because we don’t have homicides and shootings doesn’t mean we’re not escalating in other crimes,” Napolitano said.
“You want more police officers to work other districts, hire ’em offduty. Start a faster hiring campaign. Bring back [the Violence Reduction Initiative]. But if you’re gonna start reallocating officers from our district which we have done and we’re fighting for more — over my dead body.”
North Side Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) has been on the warpath about a drop in police manpower in a Town Hall District plagued by robberies and burglaries that runs contrary to a promise made in exchange for his vote for the largest property tax increase in Chicago history.
After appealing to Johnson, he received more officers, but not enough to restore the district to the 468 officers it had a few months after Emanuel took office.
“We’re adding more police officers to the entire force. We’re dealing with a lot of issues of retirement and the consent decree. It’s a stressful time for everybody,” Tunney said Wednesday.
“Tony is one voice and a respected voice. But every neighborhood is looking for more police. I’m going to fight for my resources up in my neighborhood. I understand we’ve got violence all over the city. But, if you talk to my neighbors in Lake View, they want more police.”
Northwest Side Ald. Nick Sposato (38th) said he, too, would not tolerate a reduction in officers.
“We have 33 square miles and 225 officers . . . . The 15th district is three square miles and they have 325 officers,” Sposato said.
“If they think they’re gonna take a certain percentage of officers out of my district, that’s not gonna happen without a serious fight from me. We’re under-resourced as it is. We’re fighting for more officers every day.”
Two years ago, Johnson appeared before aldermen with a promise to develop a “fair, transparent and objective methodology” for determining where to assign both veteran police officers and the 970 reinforcements Emanuel had promised to hire.
Johnson said then a study that could lead to the police reallocation South and West Side aldermen have been demanding for years would be conducted by a staffing expert, and a former Boston police superintendent.
One year later, aldermen asked about the study and were told the report was “still in draft form.”
“YOU GO DOWNTOWN AND YOU STILL SEE AN OFFICER ON EVERY CORNER. YOU SEE ’EM ON THE RIVERWALK. IF YOU GO INTO THE COMMUNITY, YOU DON’T HAVE THAT SAME PRESENCE.’’ ALD. ANTHONY BEALE (9th)
“IF THEY THINK THEY’RE GONNA TAKE A CERTAIN PERCENTAGE OF OFFICERS OUT OF MY DISTRICT, THAT’S NOT GONNA HAPPEN WITHOUT A SERIOUS FIGHT FROM ME. WE’RE UNDER-RESOURCED AS IT IS.’’ ALD. NICK SPOSATO (38th)