Training for next crisis

It was recently revealed that the Chicago Police Department is not positioned to efficiently quell widespread public disorder. A July 21 Tribune report (“Police again facing scrutiny”) details how unready and undertrained Chicago police were when foreseeable disorder unfolded in the wake of the George Floyd tragedy.

But the blame goes way back. In order for police Superintendent David Brown to have met the riotous challenge he walked into only weeks after taking command, automatic responses would have had to be in place already, created during the regime of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Superintendent Eddie Johnson or earlier.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot evidently didn’t order an audit of emergency contingency planning once in office. No predecessors had the imagination to think the worst and get ready for it. While Lightfoot and Brown inherited the unpreparedness, under Lightfoot’s stewardship, is Chicago now prepared for the next contingency? The report says: “No.”

The nation has long been awash with guns, and while racial reckoning is burgeoning, so is pushback. The pandemic is resurging, raising tensions. Russia is pushing falsehoods online intended to undermine our unity, and unfortunately, many of us are believing and acting on their lies, amplified by fearmongering U.S. news sources.

Volatility surrounds us. Opportunists abound. Given all this, all cities ought to be ready for what might come next in case tensions spiral out of control as they did a year ago and at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

City Hall has much catching up to do, with no time to waste. A good first step would be to close the police manpower gap.