Chico Wants to Hire 2,000 More Cops
By Kevin Robinson in News on Jan 27, 2011 2:30PM
Photo via Chico campaign.
"He thinks it'll match about 3 percent of the budget," she said. “If you can’t modify the budget by three percent to provide the police officers our citizens are demanding, then don’t apply for the job,” Chico told the Sun-Times.
Hiring new officers is part of Chico's larger plan to focus on crime if elected, including rebuilding community policing, empowering district commanders, strengthening Chicago’s anti-gang loitering ordinance, working to streamline communications between the Chicago Police Department and Cook County Sheriff's Office. Chico also said that he's against redeployment - pulling cops from safer, low-crime areas of the city and doubling down in higher crime areas. This was last tried in Chicago in 1978, although the Daley administration has used a smaller-scale version of this tactic - think of the so-called "surge" used to crush violent insurrection in Iraq, but on a local scale - in places like Englewood recently. "People don't want that. They want the right amount of police on the streets," Chico's said in a recent radio interview.
To be fair, Chico made his announcement with Mark Donahue, president of Chicago's police union, which endorsed Chico. Chico's plan to bring more police online is part of his larger budget plan to strip down the city budget and rebuild it, with a focus on public safety. He's also proposing to cut the bureaucracy in Chicago's police department. According to Chico, that includes "eight layers" of command between the police superintendent and district commanders, and "eleven layers" between the superintendent and cops on the street. Chico noted that the military doesn't have that much bureaucracy. “The military doesn’t have that many. It wastes money and lengthens the time it takes to get a decision made. That has to be cut down,” he said.
No word yet on if he'll set up a police recruitment station at an Irish Pub in Bolingbrook.