Extreme Makover: Police Edition
By Marcus Gilmer in News on Oct 15, 2008 9:10PM
Police Supt. Jody Weis is looking to overhaul the Chicago Police Department as the Department faces an officer shortage and a rise in crime. It's not the first time Weis has shaken things up at the CDP HQ; he stirred the pot shortly after his appointment by replacing many district commanders with his own choices. First, Weis wants to add two new assistant superintendents, one for administration and one for operations. Both would answer directly to the Superintendent. Current first deputy superintendent Jimmy Jackson would become assistant superintendent of operations. Weis had previously taken Jackson's oversight of merit promotions and assigned that to civilian Ted O’Keefe who is currently the deputy superintendent of administrative services. The new assistant superintendent of administration would be O'Keefe's supervisor. Whew.
Weis also wants to eliminate the Bureau of Strategic Deployment. Each of the department's units which are overseen by this bureau (Targeted Response Unit, public transportation, the airports, the marine unit and the new Mobile Strike Force) would be shifted to another bureau.
Weis is keeping mum on his proposals, saying, “I’m not going to talk now. Let’s let the mayor make his proposal and then we will address that down the road.” For his part, Mayor Daley seems confident in Weis' decisions, telling the Sun-Times Editorial Board that Weiss is a "good manager" and that "morale is good" in the CPD. He also dropped this nugget: "He's worth it...He is very good at terrorists...He is very knowledgeable and hard-working" (emphasis ours). We weren't aware Chicago was under constant threat from terrorists (other than Bill Ayers). Do tell, Mayor! No, seriously. If we're under threat from terrorists, shouldn't we know about it? If he's great at battling Al Qaeda, shouldn't he be good at handling teen-on-teen crime? But I digress...
The CPD budget was submitted to the City Council this morning and the new positions would go into effect January 1, 2009.