Already severely understaffed and reeling from the deaths of three police officers in a two month span, the City of Chicago has promised more police officers but a look at the numbers show it's just a drop in the bucket. A two-year "slowdown" on hiring new police officers has left the department down by 2,300 officers and yet City Hall's big promise? 100 new officers. It's an attempt to do some kind of boosting of numbers and morale after two years of trying to save money on hirings (even as more money was spent on new SUVs). Mark Donahue, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said, "The manpower situation in the Chicago Police Department is bad. Guys are out there every day telling us they have to wait for backup. And we're advising them to wait for backup for their own safety." The mayor's spokeswoman, Jacquelyn Heard, said the ball got rolling on the new hires a few weeks ago, prior to this weekend's shooting death of CPD officer Michael Bailey. more ›

Days later, fall-out continues from the call to have the National Guard mobilized in Chicago to help curb the city's violence as various government and community leaders weigh in on the matter. more ›

With the Fraternal Order of Police - the union that represents the Chicago Police Department - scheduling a very public protest over a contract dispute with Mayor Daley outside of City Hall the day the International Olympic Committee rolls into town, it was only a matter of time before Mayor Daley lashed out. Said Hizzonah: more ›

New controversy has erupted in the case of former police Cmdr. Jon Burge as the Fraternal Order of Police has announced they will pay for Burge's defense, a bill the Trib speculates could reach as much as $1 million. Burge was charged in October with perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with charges of police torture.

FOP President Mark Donahue confirmed that the union board voted Tuesday to provide funds for Burge's defense. But Donahue declined to comment further Thursday, saying he would have a more complete statement on the issue Friday. more ›

The Fraternal Order of Police is making a move to block CTA President Ron Huberman from claiming his police pension. The Ron, who makes $198,000 a year, claims that he's entitled to it since part of his job at the CTA is managing security. He had previously worked for the CPD for 13 years, serving as both a patrol officer and then an assistant deputy superintendent, focusing on technology; he last worked for the CPD in 2004. In an interview a few weeks ago with the Sun-Times, The Ron had said, "Part of my responsibility is security at the CTA. I'm not saying I'm a police officer because I'm not. But the law says if you're involved in security work and that's part of your responsibility, you have the right to pay in if you're on leave of absence." more ›

The excrement hit the fan today when Mayor Daley unveiled his proposed budget to the city council. Daley and his team hope that this new budget (check out the highlights here) will help close an estimated $470 million shortfall by laying off 929 city workers (hey, they could always go into PR) eliminating more than a thousand vacant jobs, partially shutting down the government near holidays, raising the parking and amusement taxes, doing away with the Fire Department's Segway patrols (seriously?), doubling library fines, and privatizing 35,000 parking meters. more ›

Last week, we wrote about the shortage of police officers as crime in the city was rising, a correlation Mayor Daley denied. In keeping with his line of (faulty?) thought, a number of the proposed job vacancies being eliminated in the City's attempt to get it's $420 million budget under control includes several hundred police positions. According to the Sun Times, "the Chicago Police Department has 329 sworn vacancies and 424 openings for non-sworn police employees. That's in addition to the 705 officers on medical leave and 625 officers on limited or convalescent duty status." These vacancies would be eliminated in spite of Daley's promise earlier this year to add more officers to the force. more ›

It's been a rough year for new Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis. First was the Taste debacle, which led to his grilling by the City Council. Then came news last week that as crime has risen, arrests are down. But that's not the only number down, according to a report in today's Trib. It seems that Weis has been unable to deliver on a promise to hire more officers. In fact, due to "retirements, firings and resignations," the total number of officers on the force is down by 250. According to Mark Donahue, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, the department has lost approximately 375 officers while only hiring 125 new ones since the beginning of the year. And that total number could increase to a -400 difference by the end of the year. The force had somewhere in the neighborhood of 13,4000 sworn officers as of December 2007. more ›