Police burnout? Sleep photo goes viral
Police Supt. Eddie Johnson has promised that Chicago’s five most violent police districts will continue to get 600 additional weekend officers “until we’re comfortable things are stabilized.”
Fraternal Order of Police President Kevin Graham has warned of burnout by officers whose requests to take time off have been refused.
Now, there may be photographic evidence to support the officer burnout argument.
It comes in the form of a photograph posted on the Facebook page of mayoral challenger Ja’Mal Green.
It shows Chicago Police Squadrol 6111 with two officers in the front seat, both fast asleep. The driver is a woman. The officer in the passenger seat is a man.
“In light of all of the violence that happened last week, Rahm decided to deploy 600 MORE officers & make officers work overtime! This picture proves WHY that was a bad idea,” Green wrote on his Facebook page.
“Officers get fatigued, which will prevent them from reacting to crime. Militarizing communities does NOT reduce violence. That’s why I’m running for mayor because we need a REAL comprehensive plan to address violence that deals with economics / jobs, education, mental health, small businesses, affordable housing and more! #GOGREEN2019”
Green said the photo was taken “a couple of days ago” and posted by “Breed Stank” before “going super-viral” and being sent to him by a supporter. He’s still trying to find out where the officers were at the time and what they were supposed to be doing when they dozed off.
But Green said the photo is proof positive that the costly surge of police overtime used to tamp down the violence after a recent weekend that saw 71 people shot, 12 of them dead, is not only unsustainable but also downright dangerous.
“We’re talking about deploying 400 to 600 officers. Taking away their days off. Making them work. That’s not the answer. Officers are fatigued. We’v got to start talking about the health of our police officers who are on the street, all day, every day on overtime in our neighborhoods,” Green said Monday.
Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said CPD “became aware” of the embarassing photo of the snoozing cops over the weekend. The Bureaus of Patrol and Internal Affairs promptly opened an investigation.
“Officers will face discipline,” Guglielmi wrote in an email.
Green isn’t the only mayoral challenger sounding the alarm about requiring officers to work overtime in Chicago’s five most violent districts.
Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas said even more than the photo of snoozing cops, weekend violence “shows that the Chicago Police Department’s unrelenting overtime strategy for officers simply is not working” and that there is “no substitute for increasing police strength including the supervisory and detectives ranks.”
“In the meantime, Chicago should do what other cities like Dallas, Denver and even London have done, rehire retired police officers to help deal with our public safety crisis,” said Vallas.
Former Police Board President Lori Lightfoot recently called the surge a costly and unsustainable “recipe for disaster.”
“We’re gonna have this big surge of officers who are gonna come into these districts. Officers who are not familiar with these districts, who don’t know the stakeholders, don’t know the nuances. That’s potentially a recipe for disaster,” Lightfoot said.