Weis to "Reallocate" Police Resources By End of Year

By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 20, 2010 1:37PM

Testifying at City Council budget hearings yesterday, Chicago Police Department Superintendent Jody Weis defended himself against complaints that he's been slow to fill the manpower shortages in the department. Citing budgetary constraints as the main reason the Police Department is 2,300 officers-per-day short of authorized strength, Weis said that he will "reallocate" officers currently on desk duty in lower crime districts to areas of the city where resources are desperately needed in the fight against crime.

"We can't go three decades without adjusting resources again. That's inexcusable," Weis said, saying the shift is "a resource realignment to make sure we put those officers where they need to be based upon . . . a formula we would be able to adjust on a regular basis should crime shift, should communities change."

Weis stopped short of calling the plan a "beat realignment," which would require a complete redrawing of the 281 beat districts to account for population and crime shifts. 9th Ward Alderman Anthony Beale, chair of the Police Committee, lauded Weis's plan as a step in the right direction and Weis personally for taking a stand where his four predecessors couldn't. Among the critics of the plan were 38th Ward Alderman Tom Allen, who said he would fight to preserve the manpower levels in his ward. The anonymous cop bloggers at Second City Cop are also criticizing Weis's plan, listing reasons for why it's one that doesn't address the real issue of not hiring more cops. "So not only have all the districts been gutted by creating all these 'specialized units' that sap manpower from actual physical beats, now if you don't have crime statistics high enough, you're going to lose what little protection you have."

SCC then predicted that Weis's reallocation plan would devolve the situation on the streets to that of Detroit