Breaking: Superintendent Cline Resigns

By Louis in News on Apr 2, 2007 4:30PM

In the wake of recent police misconduct, Superintendent Philip Cline has handed his resignation to Mayor Daley in a meeting this morning. Though he was originally expected to retire at the end of the year, the recent problems have obviously made an early trip to Del Boca Vista a little more attractive despite comments last Friday that he wanted to stay with the department and that he served at the will of the Mayor.

The two barroom beatings leave a bad mark on an otherwise positive career that began in 2003 and has resulted in declining murder and crime rates. Last month the department announced a double-digit decrease in all but one category from the same time last year. However, the problems of the last few weeks have garnered national and international attention via videos of the beating of a female bartender by police officer Anthony Abbate. In response to Abbate's action, Cline stated, "He's tarnished our image worse than anybody else in the history of the department." That is really saying something in light of a questionable history of the Chicago Police.

That image only got worse as more alleged beating victims came forward, followed by cops who shielded Abbate from the media as he left the court house. Cline quickly demoted the Captain who issued the order to shield Abbate, tickets given to media vehicles were revoked, and Cline denounced the actions.

Cline will stay on until a replacement is found.