McCarthy Looks at Closing Police Stations

By Chuck Sudo in News on Sep 19, 2011 1:40PM

Faced with cutting $190 million from the Police Department's $1.3 billion budget, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said he's considering possibly shuttering some of the city's 25 district stations.

Chicago has 25 district stations and the last time a police superintendent closed stations was in 1960. High-ranking officials within the Police Department told the Sun-Times closing stations is under consideration. Given the mandate to trim fat, McCarthy said, "We're looking at everything."

The anonymous cop blogger Second City Cop speculates McCarthy has already made the decision and is laying his money down on which stations will be closed.

[The Police Department has] already broken ground on a new 012, while 025, 002, 011 and 005 are all Areas. That leaves 021, 013, 024, and 003. Prairie is the most obvious closure and Wood is the next. That evens out the political fallout north side versus south side.

9th Ward Ald. Anthony Beale and 32nd Ward Ald. Scott Waguespack said they would support the closures of stations in their ward if it didn't hamper public safety, the officers in those stations were absorbed elsewhere in their wards and the remaining stations rehabbed to accommodate increased staffs.

You can be certain Mayor Emanuel and McCarthy will add the reassigned officers from any closings to their total of officers that have been put back on the streets since Emanuel took office in May