Weis Suggests Forming Auxiliary Police Force
UPDATED October 19, 2010, 5:44 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- With the Chicago Police Department facing a serious manpower shortage, Police Supt. Jody Weis on Tuesday suggested eventually allowing retired officers to be rehired as an auxiliary police force to supplement full-time officers.
"Retired officers still want to contribute" to the department, Weis told aldermen at a City Hall budget hearing on Tuesday.
The city's top cop was explaining to the City Council's Budget Committee how he's shuffling duties to tackle crime with an undermanned department. When it to comes to policing in Chicago one number alone casts a shadow on every arrest: there is a shortage of 2,300 officers on the entire force.
Ald. Edward Burke (14th), who chairs the City Council Finance Committee, said he's suggested using a reserve police force before.
"It certainly is being done everywhere else," Burke said, "I think it just makes sense."
He said auxiliary officers could be given authority to make arrests and carry guns just like regular officers. But if they're retired cops, they could be paid a much lower salary than full-time officers because they'd already be drawing a pension and health benefits.
Burke noted that the city is writing 11.6 percent fewer parking tickets this year than last year and that if auxiliary police officers were used to focus on writing tickets for parking violations and other city code violations, they could essentially pay for themselves.
Weis said that he's been exploring the use of auxiliary police officers to supplement the Chicago Police Department's sworn staff. He said he's been researching the use of auxiliary or reserve officers in other cities, such as New York, Los Angeles and Maricopa County, Arizona.
There have been previous proposals to use auxiliary police officers in Chicago, but those ideas have met stiff resistance from the Fraternal Order of Police. Weis said he hopes that if the department relies on retired officers, who have already been trained in police duties, FOP resistance would end.
But his suggestion of an auxiliary police force is just an idea at this point and not something on the official drawing board at the Police Department. However, the superintendent did outline other steps the department is taking, such as a long-awaited beat realignment.
Weis said the department is close to fulfilling a longtime promise in 2008 to realign the city's 281 police beats for the first time since 1978.
"We will deliver it in 2011," Weis said.
The superintendent said the department has been working with a private firm to analyze how best to realign the city's police beats and make sure every district has enough officers relative to the amount of crime it has. He noted that some lower crime districts have more officers than needed.
The shortfall also is being met with creative reassignments. Weis announced he just disbanded a specialized crime unit of 150 officers, each redeployed into dangerous districts.
It's a move that's been feared by residents in safer neighborhoods for years. The juggling act doesn't sit well with every alderman, especially with aldermanic elections coming up in four months.
"The perception is that if police resources are removed from their area, they're going to see an increase in crime," Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) said. "And I think that's a legitimate concern."
As CBS 2's Vince Gerasole reports, aldermen don't necessarily blame Weis for the need to move officers around. Some pointed to a proposed Daley adminstration budget that could have made deeper cuts to other city functions to pay for more police officers.
Reilly said Daley's budget proposal doesn't do enough to cut the fat from other departments to free up money for the Police Department.
"This is a lazy, election year budget," Reilly said.
A class of 55 new police officers is set to graduate from the academy on Nov. 16 and another class of 118 new officers will graduate shortly after the New Year, Weis said.
"So we will see some relief after the first of the year," he said.
Next year, another 200 new officers will be added to the force, but anything more – including a possible auxiliary police force – is not in the budget and aldermen know it.
"There isn't any money and there's no resource in sight to supply the money necessary to hire additional police," Burke said.
Burke is also upset that the city has fallen short of its effort to begin registering tens of thousands of violent criminals convicted of gun violations. The measure was part of the city's response to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision striking down the city's handgun ban this summer.
Weis said that the Police Department has all the necessary systems in place to register gun offenders, but, "the problem is as of this date we don't have anyone registered."
The superintendent blamed the courts for failing to filter offenders into the registration program. Aldermen want him to fix it fast.
"They're not registered. That's a violation of the law. Lock them up, get them into the station, get them off the street," Burke said.
--CBS 2 web producer Todd Feurer and reporter Vince Gerasole contributed to this report.
