Days after he was sworn into office last year, Emanuel announced the start of what he described as a major shift in how the police department assigns officers across the city. He promised to fulfill a campaign pledge by assigning 1,000 more cops to high-crime areas without reducing the police presence in other parts of the city.
“We cannot beat crime without more officers on the beat,” the mayor said then.
That was May 2011.
But, as of Oct. 15, a total of 6,638 rank-and-file officers were assigned to police beats citywide, down from 6,746 beat cops at the start of 2011, according to the data obtained by the Sun-Times.
While nine districts now have more officers than they did, most districts have fewer beat cops than before Emanuel and his police superintendent, Garry McCarthy, reassigned hundreds of officers, the records show.
The reason is simple: For every newly hired officer assigned to a beat during the past two years, six other sworn members of the department have retired.
And because about 1,200 retirements have sharply depleted the payroll, rank-and-file police staffing even in some high-crime areas where new officers were added last year is again declining, the Sun-Times found.
Meanwhile, lower-crime districts that didn’t benefit from Emanuel and McCarthy’s redeployment strategy have seen staffing levels continue to fall steadily due to attrition.
“Since Day 1, they’ve just been playing with the numbers,” said Mike Shields, president of the police officers’ union, which has called for an increase in hiring to offset the historic wave of retirements.
Typical Obamaite promises- promise sometingand then fail to deliver.
Obamaite, Rahm Emmanuel takes after Obama, who promises many things but fails to deliver what he promises.
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