Open thread to start the weekend
If you aren't watching the National Geographic channel right now, do so. It's 276 on DirectTV. The special on the 9/11 attacks is one of the most superbly done pieces of investigating reporting done in the 4 years since that awful day.
Otherwise, treat this thread as open commentary.
Otherwise, treat this thread as open commentary.
posted by SCC at 8:20 PM
16 Comments:
I don't know if there is a 24 hour rule or not, so if u want to move on skip this posting.
MANPOWER: It is tough to get a read on manpower. On good source is the Pension Board Anual Report that came out recently and can be found in almost any station. It shows a steady decrease in the number of officers paying into the fund, but as of last year it was still ovr 13,000. It would be hard to believe the numeber of P.O.'s dropped down to 9,500. Also, Unit Profile Report on the CPD Intranet gives info on manpower in districts. Virtually all Districts are low, but not enough to account for only 9,500 offciers. There is a definate downward trend in manpower though.
The problem is the Districts are just just being drained of manpower. One Gang Team works for the Area Dep Chief and may not be in the District. TRU and SOS and All these other units are draining man power too. At the same time calls for service have almost doubled (up 2 million calls a year) since 1993. Less cops in the Districts , more calls to answer. Plus, everything takes longer, citations for residential alarms, contact cards are like writting a case report, traffic study cards when you write a ticket. An efficency expert would recommend most of the think tank at HQ be fired for putting the CPD and the citizens in this situation.
GOOD BOSSES: alsways rip, and diservedly so, the bad bosses, what about the good bosses? Capt. Joe Mullins, God rest his soul, was the beat I ever knew. Any other nominations?
Ronnie Kelly. One of the best bosses in the city. Politically heavy, but never forgot where he came from. Put a brick on his own career standing up for his guys when they got caught out of the city being naughty. We would have laid down in traffic for that guy. Two stars on his sleeve and the second star was all lieutenant time. Went to the park district and currently heads gang investigations at state's attorney office.
Don't have the National Geographic Channel, unfortunately. Best thing I ever saw on 911 was the where the two camramen, brothers I think, just happened to be doing a documentary on a firehouse whose trucks and men were assigned to the the towers. It was good and should be shown every 9/11 so no one ever forgets and younger people see why we are fighting.
Good Bosses: Thought of another good boss (don't have National Geographic Channel and Sox in in extra innings). Vince Candella, who has Lou Gherig's Disease. Great boss, great guy.
Just a question- What was the AREA5 det. division clear up rate last year? What is it so far this year? How is it that such a fucked up Det. Division like A5- can be #1 in clear ups....Must be the Commander & his shaft. I meen staff. Not his staff but his guys..yeah his staff. Nice staff.
I'm in a district in A/2 & their Det's BLOW!!! They are the biggest waste of $$ I have ever seen in 20 yrs. on this job!
Your propably one of the useless fucksticks in 003 or 006 bodies dropping everywhere but no one gets locked up for UUW. Can't lock-up your fellow gangbangers i guess.
Don't forget Ron Kelly's "you owe me a dollar" when you are late for roll call.
Heck of a guy and really never forgot where he came from.
Whats with the AREA 5 Det. Div. commaders shaft / staff comment..that sounds GAY! Wait a minute are you saying he's...............No. Do ya think?
Yes, I do and so does evryone else.
If he is, who cares! That's his business, losers!
"Not that there's anything wrong with that..."
His business is dry cleaning
MANHOLE!!!!!!!
Regarding manpower....I work 3rd watch and every night on my way home, I pass through 4 districts. On average, I see at least 2, one man cars on my ride home.
When I first came on the job (a short 16 years ago), there were 3 wagons on 3rd watch and 2 on 1st and 2nd. Except for 2nd watch, all the cars were 2 man. And there were foot posts, 3-wheelers, and a bunch of sector cars. It was a treat to be 99. Some nights, on 1st watch, all the cars would be 99, but every job you went to, the whole watch would show up.
from '99 to '00 as I recall, 001 and 018 had 4 wagons on days (maybe fewer on 1st, but more than 1). 007 and 011 typically had two up on at least 3rd watch, and maybe on 2nd too.
Foot units on midnights were rare except in 018. Some districts seemed to have none or just one or two on days. For example, I can't recall any regular foot units in 011 or 015, but they might have been there.
The biggest travesty I ever saw in the city in terms of manpower was midnights in 011 on weekend nights in the summer. There really isn't a great way to explain it, because they handled whatever came their way. 010 and 011 never seemed as busy as 007 or 008 in terms of calls or the overall radio, but there were a LOT of nights where there were fewer police working in 011 on 1st watch than there were working in at least 15 other districts.
I'll say something nice about what's happened since. I'm not saying that manpower is being efficiently allocated. 40 jump-out boys standing around for hours waiting for someone to tell them what to do? Not efficient. But if there was one place to start really saturating and pressing hard, it was 011. It was obvious for more than 30 years that the city was completely screwed up precisely because 011 was not being addressed except with 1-day reverse stings, or 8 hour saturation missions or whatever. But nothing systematic or organized.
I'm sure the reason they started with 011 is Stark's influence, and its to his credit if he cried about it to the point where something got done. But its still only 10% of the solution, and I don't see where the remaining 90% is going to come from. They still have POs hiding in units all over the place. The manpower count HAS to be way down, or there are a lot of people who should be reported missing in action. The department is still set up to promote a bunch of boss's kids and politicians.
and we'll never see true accountability until they start making bosses who they can hold accountable. If the CPD were a publicly held company, Cline would have received a big bonus last year, and he would have already been fired this year.
And who's in the pipeline? I'm standing on the top of the hill that holds our bright shining city, and the future does not look good.
First thing they need to do is get everybody who was promoted on Hanhardt's watch in a room, and tell em the bad news.
Right on about Area 2.
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