Welp, it's time for our periodic check of how things are going in Chicago, let's look and see.
Oh.
An internal CPD memo obtained by the ABC7 I-Team Monday night, and now being read at police district roll calls, orders that all days off be canceled for one full week between May 24 and 31.
Officers may also be put on 12-hour work shifts during that time "if operational needs arise," according to the memo. It is expected that downtown retail corridors will get special attention during that period as well.
CPD has increased staffing levels at times in recent years after especially high-crime weekends, but typically canceling just one day off across ranks. According to the police department order, the upcoming holiday will require that officers work straight through their regularly scheduled off days.
A total of 201 people have been murdered in Chiraq from January to May.
And the city is so afraid of a bigger surge in violence that it's cancelling a whole week of off-days for its police force.
Admittedly, a large part of the reason could be that the city has been absolutely shedding police officers in recent years:
Data shows that more officers left CPD in 2019 and 2020 than joined, and that trend only accelerated through the pandemic. According to the department, between January and October 2021 900 officers left the force while only 51 joined.
"In theory, we are probably 2,000-plus under our all-time high," [Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President John] Catanzara said. "That doesn't make anybody safe, that doesn't make the streets safer which the last two years of homicide numbers show. That doesn't make our officers any safer, it leads to exhaustion."
Yeah, and axing an entire week of days off isn't going to help with that exhaustion, either.
No way around it: Chicago is in a big-time jam.
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