Budget Cuts Won't Hurt Safety *

(* -any more than safety has already been hurt via decades of political mismanagement, years of unqualified promotions and a complete breakdown of training.)

This is a laughable report from WBBM Newsradio 780:

• Mayor Emanuel is promising that cuts to the police budget will not jeopardize public safety.

  Emanuel on Wednesday confirmed that he has asked Police Supt. Garry McCarthy to cut $190 million from the police department budget.

  That may mean that open jobs would be left unfilled. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that not hiring for those positions would save about $93 million, leaving nearly $100 million in required reductions.

Some guy over at the FOP actually launched a zinger at Rahm in Fran Spielman's Sun Times report:

• But [some guy at] Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police, questioned whether the move would actually save money.

  “How does ‘eliminating vacancies’ save $93 million when zero dollars were being spent on the vacant spots in the first place?” he asked. “That’s some real Enron-style accounting.”

It certainly is some paper shuffling, kind of like Shortshanks' budgets that relied on "projections" for vast amounts of money - "projections" that actually never materialized and never seemed to take into account real-world economics.

The Tribune does a slightly better job and delves into what has been covered here for months now - months that the regular media folks have sat on their hands, reapplied their special Mayoral Ass Kissing Chapstick to their lips and located comfortable new spots on Rahm's ass instead of Daley's:

• Emanuel frequently says that under his new administration 750 more officers have been put on the street, but that figure is hotly contested by rank-and-file cops.
  
  They note that 500 officers from specialized units who already worked the streets, albeit under centralized commands, were shifted to regular patrols or five district task forces. Another 50 were probationary officers.

We covered that, what? A month ago? Nice of you folks at the Trib to catch up finally.

The Chicago Police Department is like any huge bureaucracy - inefficient in the extreme. There's plenty of room for cutting, we'd never deny that. The exempt ranks are bloated, the multitude of small units is extreme, the redundant supervision/duplicated duties is ridiculous. It needs to change.

But no one is asking the right people how to change it. McCarthy should be looking at Lieutenants, Sergeants, and yes, even the lowly Officers for ideas. These are your end users. These are the people who can spot the hypocrisy, waste, inefficiency. Look at AIRA, CLEAR, CHRIS, most of the computer systems we use - do you really think a beat cop or a detective had any input into any of these disasters? Minimal, if at all.

We are about to enter what will undoubtedly be the most contentious negotiations of all time. We need to step up and take the initiative, be it with offers, ideas, publicity campaigns, or press conferences. Otherwise, we are likely witnessing the end of the FOP as a viable bargaining agent.