Fioretti Points Out Shortages
Amazingly, an aldercreature sees what's happening - and says so:
- At Wednesday’s City Council meeting I introduced a resolution with 19 of my colleagues as co-sponsors calling for a hearings with the Police Superintendent and City Budget Director on how the vacancies within the Police Department are going to be filled. Currently there are over 700 openings for officers in the department. Academy graduations have been slowed and, as a result of the recent completion of the contract arbitrations, more officers will be retiring; more than 100 are already pending. These facts not only mean that our communities are in greater danger but our sworn officers are as well. The openings place an undue burden on the men and women that fill our police department, forcing them to work more hours and spread themselves thinner. At the hearings called for in our resolution we will ask the administration what their plan is to fix this situation and ensure the safety of our brave officers and our neighborhoods.
This was posted back on 17 April. Political grandstanding? Partially, we're sure. But nice to see someone in a position of power pointing this out since our readers have been saying this exact thing for two years now.
Labels: city politics, department issues
posted by SCC at 1:01 AM
38 Comments:
I asked this a couple years ago. I haven't seen any homicides count towards our totals that happened on the E-ways.
Lots of barking, let's see if he'll do any biting...
the alderman is on point big time--- he explains that the citizens of the city are in need of a police response when called upon but he also touches on the reality of manpower shortage having a negative and potentially dangerous outcome for the brave officers of the chicago police department....
There's a hell of a lot more openings than what they're saying. Lately, they've been stripping the watches of the 2-year wonders and detailing these newbs to TRU and MSF, leaving the districts with less and less people to man the cars. That's how they make the public believe there's more manpower out there than there really is, by counting them twice. They're technically still "assigned" to the district and counted once as a body there. Then they're counted a second time in the unit they're "detailed" to.
VIOLA! Instant manpower increase!
It's all a bullshit numbers game and the media and public are clueless as to how they use smoke and mirrors to make people think the districts are safely covered, which they're not.
Every district is cutting back by downing rapid cars or putting up 99 cars when they can. We had to drop a prisoner at Central Detention recently and one of the people from 001 told me they run almost all 99 beat cars on afternoons there and never put up a single rapid car.
No rapids? That's unbelieveable. Do you think the people who live in the south loop would be happy to know that they pay the highest amount of property taxes and get the least amount of police manpower to protect them? And that's just one small example. The manpower shortages are everywhere, and it's getting worse as each month goes by and coppers continue to retire.
Who are Fioretti's co-sponsors?
When they realize or decide that they do have to do a mass hiring I hope they look what happened in Miami in the 80's. Miami was plagued with an alarming crime rate due to heavy cocaine influx. Miami had to hire hundreds of police at one time so they dropped thier standards and did not have enough investigators to complete adequate backgrounds on candidates, They wound up hiring a lot of gangbangers who then committed a host of crimes on the payrolls of the drug dealers. Will history repeat itself or will the top brass with all thier vast police experience and knowledge learn something from it ?
NOTHING WILL CHANGE.
He is a decent Guy. I have met with him before on some issues and he does care about the Police.
Allow lateral transfers from the burbs. Some of them may be crazy enuff to take the job especially with many of the burbs talking about laying off. A quick 60 day training cycle should do it and presto we could be up to speed. Many of these officers work in areas that are just as bad as Chicago and would be great additions. Most other cities and towns do this already and even recruit here in Chicago.
Not only are we down officers but there isn't enough cars for the officers that we have currently. How about we get some more cars too. Each night their are up to seven beat officers sitting around the station for up to two hours waiting on cars. Be careful its a long wait for backup the squads aren't safe.
Fioretti must look like "Carnack the Great" right now because since he made that statement people were killed and shot, ALL OVER THE CITY and then irish yuppie baseball bat debacle while every unit in 014 ran 99. Weis came here to decimate the CPD and he must have promised daley that he could do it without compromising public safety. Well last years icy rainey summer made him look like gold. Weis played it up to the hilt by patting himself on the back at every news conference he could.
Now stand by ...
As hard as we work for the Mayor and City of Chicago (No matter what you say, he signs our checks), why was he once again a NO SHOW at St. Jude? These officers died on HIS streets. He could not take out 30 minutes of his life to come and say, hey I support you and I “Remember” as your Mayor!
Now, we got...
*Completely fucked with our contract
*He is not supplying us health insurance after 2013
*He openly admits he knows CPD is short; we have the continual proof that we are actually dangerously short
*The communities are ASKING for the National Guard (un-informed citizens don't even realize what they are asking for)
*Across the nation police are being gunned down, especially as 99 units
*We have seen on national television how the savages shot at each other as the police stood right there
*We are all exhausted and just don't have the energy to keep up the pace we have been pushing for the last few years
*Morale is 0!
*We are becoming more and more afraid for our own families
*We are broke because Property Taxes, food, light, gas etc. have all gone up
*Our Commanders and Supervisors are forcing us to perform because downtown keeps throwing it down their throats. I can’t come up with any more innovative ideas to address crime as a P.O. Why don’t the Aldercreatures do something about the economy in their areas then maybe the savages won’t prey on the weaker EVERYWHERE! This is not a police issue; we are just taking the brunt of this because it is so easy to point the finger at us. This is an economic and morale issue!
*We have to continually watch bosses like the Feds that are employed by CPD make hundreds of thousands of dollars, make decision for street level law enforcement who have never been the police like Asst. Supt. Cuello (should have been asked to resign once her story hit the news, merit hack and mile chaser), Juan Rivera (punk), Dana Alexander (toots his own horn every chance he gets and his reputation is worst than Ernie Brown), Michael Masters (How many rules will he to break? He gets off each and every time scot free) Constantine Andrews, Deborah Kirby, Kevin Ryan and Lucy Moy just to name a few!
This shithole is getting worst everyday! I hope the Media starts to print quotes from SCC.
I almost forgot, did you see J-Fled on the news last night? How can this idiot whose job with the city is also the Homeland Security Rep or some shit like that, say that Chicago is not a target and bombings are no threat here? Even the media people called him stupid and asked what he was doing. If can't get basic shit right, how can you expect him to represent street level policing!
J-Fled, J-Fed, the Weisel, Sorry Excuse for a Superintendent….PLEASE LEAVE!!! DO US ALL A FAVOR! YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO THIS DEPARTMENT AND TO THIS CITY, THE LONGER YOU STAY THE WORST OFF THE CITY WILL BE. DO YOU REALLY WANT THIS ON YOUR CONSCIOUS AS YOU GROW OLDER EACH DAY!
Just 700 officers short. There has not been a detectives class in over 2 and half years and they are hundreds short just in the detectives unit. How may sgts. and Lt.s short? Nice to hear someone points it out thou.
Ald Fioretti should demand that rank of commander is eliminated.
Assign captains to supervise districts and units now run by commanders . This will save cpd and pension budgets.
Assign lieutenants as district and unit watch commanders on every watch and field lieutenants to areas to patrol more than 1 district
hire civilians to perform clerical duties now performed by police officers
cpd has to many police officers assigned to perform office work
civilians could be paid half the salary of the officers
put non iod officers assigned to light duty on disabilty pension or rehire them as civilians
CPD needs Police Officers on the street not in district and headquarters offices
At a recent meeting between Ald. Waguespack and Wicker Park business owners he told us to write letters to the Mayor demanding that more police be hired. Maybe the Alderman have had enough of dealing with this very local issue.
Everyone blames FOP for alot of our problems. I must say I believe the FOP is a little weak at times. But without a strike or work slow down there is nothing the FOP can do but go to an arbitrator. That is not working out to well. I would, if I were in the current FOP regime hold a press confrence. I would explain to public how the new quota system in place to reward officers (tax collectors) with overtime is encouraging officers to replace compasion and discretion with punishment of citizens. The less tickets we write the more the public (working people) will support us. Let the green vests be the bad guy's. The press is against us the city regime is against us, if we lose all the tax payers we are finished.
Less POs means more OT.
All talk. All grand standing. The city won't spend money on police. They will let the retirees retire and pay the rest of us 1 percent more this year and two oerc ent next year.
no internal promotions(dicks being made, making sgt's and lt's off the list) because everyone thats waiting is in patrol(beat car or teams). we're already stretched so thin as it is, that's why city hall won't let promote. morale killer!
It's nice to hear Ald. Doherty has an extra 50,ooo-100,000 laying around to build a dog park at Norwood. Forget about fixing the parks for kids or maybe hiring more police, at least the dogs will have a nice area to play. Business Name: Alderman Brian Doherty
Contact: Alderman Brian Doherty
Phone: 773-792-1991
Address: 6650 N. Northwest Hwy
Chicago, IL 60631
Email: bdoherty@cityofchicago.org
There's a hell of a lot more openings than what they're saying. Lately, they've been stripping the watches of the 2-year wonders and detailing these newbs to TRU and MSF,
--------------------------------------
You got people with 2 years on in your district? Is that even possible? When did they last hire?
I know a 4 kids coming back from the Marines next year. Did their 4 years and are all expecting to join CPD.
I feel really bad for them... Not because this is a shit job, but because we're not hiring.
How about they open the bids to the Districts (the real amount of openings that there are), so that those of us that want out of units can come back to work in the Districts? You start posting the true amount of openings and you might have some more bodies in Patrol. Keep only posting 2 openings in like 003, 005 and 007, and of course no one is gonna bid. It would help. And then stop assigning new PO's who just came off probation to Districts like 017, 018 and 019 and put them in the crappier Districts just like we all had to endure, so that they can eventually bid out when they have the time. Granted, you would have to have hired people to begin with.
Yesterday, J-Fled gave a command performance on Chicago Tonight.
Check it out:
http://www.wttw.com/main.taf?
p=42,8,80
When asked about his impact on officer morale, Herr Weis said there's always going to be a handful of people who can't be made happy and have a distrust of the FBI and outsiders.
Try a CPD-full.
J-Fled said since he arrived the CPD has become a well-trained department, with stars that can't be ripped off our uniforms anymore. As a bonus to us lowly peons, J-Fled brought a new work schedule down from the Temple Mount on 35th Street, replacing the golden 6-2 calf we had for over 40 years. Best of all, the CPD has a poop load of new leaders and a brand-spankin' new leadership academy where patrol and goldbraid royalty can hone their leadership skills.
When asked how many volunteers there were for his summer violence initiative, J-Fled said he didn't know. J-Fled seemed frustrated over the inflexibility of our contractual rights and the obligations of management to abide by seniority in the unit bidding process. J-Fled doesn't anticipate hiring officers "any time soon," but he says CPD is 95% staffed and our current manpower levels can be better utilized through the strategic deployment of officers using real-time 24-hour intelligence.
Did you know 36,000 CPD officers were trained last year? Holy Sh*t.
Herr Weis' master plan is taking form quickly, much faster than our glacial FLOP leadership can acknowledge. Redistricting will happen by the end of the year, allowing J-Fled to further reduce district manpower allocations and give him and King Dick the Two cover for redeploying officers to these Stroke Farce violence suppression initiatives.
Like J-Fled said in the interview, it's a numbers game.
Thank you very much Alderman Fioretti for your kind words and support.
Now let's see if there is a bite to your bark.
Every district is cutting back by downing rapid cars or putting up 99 cars when they can. We had to drop a prisoner at Central Detention recently and one of the people from 001 told me they run almost all 99 beat cars on afternoons there and never put up a single rapid car.
No rapids? That's unbelieveable. Do you think the people who live in the south loop would be happy to know that they pay the highest amount of property taxes and get the least amount of police manpower to protect them? And that's just one small example. The manpower shortages are everywhere, and it's getting worse as each month goes by and coppers continue to retire.
5/05/2010 03:22:00 AM
Very good point Office! Now think if God forbid there was a terrorist attack in downtown Chicago. In short; we are screwed and people will die. 1st district is that short!
OT - heard city's last proposal for sgt's is pretty good. they do not have to pass physical fitness test(power) to become LT. they get the 55 and out. and they dont have to wait for november to start it. Good for you guys! lots more sgt's will be retiring now. it still have to be taken to the vote and be ratified. ranks are going to get thinner and thinner. also good news for the guys waiting on the current sgt list. eventually they will have to promote to fill in the holes.
how low will city hall make us get? start promoting sgt's and lt's from within, and start hiring new recruits!
I'm so tired of this political bullshit in this city! Everyday you pick up a paper it's the same shit and it's getting old. If things are going to change then we need to get our asses to the voting booth. Daley, anyone connected to him GONE! Illinois politics is 3/4 full of mental midgets and that's because the population is 3/4 mental midgets! Signed the abused wife-
Sounds like he has a genuine interest but there are too many players who stand to gain from his alleged concern for the taxpayers and police. I don't trust the agenda of any alderman.
Did he squawk as much at the mayor and alderman's decision to make city workers take unpaid days off while they voted to take only a percentage of a day's pay off, under a mathematical formula cooked up by them? The days off for their part-time salaries are a fraction of a days pay while other city workers have to take full days off without pay. Last time I checked the police and the fire departments are the only city workers who always work 24-7. Not aldermen. Must be nice to make the rules you that don't impact you. Hypocrites.
Anonymous said...
He is a decent Guy. I have met with him before on some issues and he does care about the Police.
5/05/2010 05:57:00 AM
If that's true then why didn't they put them in charge of the police/fire committee? Instead they put an overpaid part-time idiot who hates the police. A clear example of the overall "care" for the largest body of employees the city has - the pd. So that makes his words null.
I know from experience Fiorretti is NO friend of the police. Look-up some news articles and you will see him bashing the police so he can support his shit constituants. Look at his ward and who elected him. Will throw the police under the bus in a second. Be careful out there
NOTHING WILL CHANGE.
5/05/2010 05:45:00 AM
Until Daley and cronies are deeped six, so not in our lifetime.
Who cares - HAWKS WIN!!!!
Uninformed citizens want the National Guard to shoot these monsters.
It's nice to hear Ald. Doherty has an extra 50,ooo-100,000 laying around to build a dog park at Norwood. Forget about fixing the parks for kids or maybe hiring more police, at least the dogs will have a nice area to play.
5/05/2010 12:10:00 PM
--You sound cranky. Maybe you NEED a dog to happy you up a little.
People in apartments and condos are always lobbying aldermen for dog parks and, even then, it usually takes many years before one comes into being. Tell your friends and neighbors (you know, the VOTERS) to stop asking for the dog park, then the alderman won't be looking to build one.
Doherty's local discretionary fund doesn't have a thing to do with hiring more police, so your comment about that was just a waste of space.
God, I wish I lived in an area where the biggest gripe was about a dog park.
Anonymous said...
He is a decent Guy. I have met with him before on some issues and he does care about the Police.
5/05/2010 05:57:00 AM
Didn't he make his fortune with lawsuits against the CPD?
Mind you, I'm not endorsing Fioretti.
However, I'll take him over his predecessor, Madeline "2300 Fred Hampton Way" HAITHCOCK anytime. Monroe St. remains just that. May Bobby Rush and all the Black Panther cop killers burn in Hell.
hire civilians to perform clerical duties now performed by police officers
cpd has to many police officers assigned to perform office work
civilians could be paid half the salary of the officers
put non iod officers assigned to light duty on disabilty pension or rehire them as civilians
CPD needs Police Officers on the street not in district and headquarters offices
I agree with some of the post BUT you CANNOT civilianize every inside clerical job on this department, there is sensitive material, documents, access to law enforcement only databases etc. that civilians csnnot and should not have access to. Not to mention, they have already laid off a bunch of civilian spots on this job and more will come, it's not the answer, hiring more coppers is...
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