No Shortages! Trust Us!

But if that were true, this wouldn't be an issue:

• After a series of attacks and anti-Semitic threats, Jewish families in West Rogers Park have lined up their own security force of off-duty Chicago police officers to patrol the neighborhood.
  
  But the neighborhood's top police officers are unhappy about the move, saying they don't want residents to get a false sense of security.

Newsflash "top" police officers - they are less secure, and they can prove it. The uptick in hate crimes, the graffiti, robbery, thefts, etc. Crime is about perception. The community perceives that they are unsafe and are moving to take steps.

Wait until you see what some are saying:

• "It was brought to our attention there was a group of citizens in the area that don't feel the police are serving the community the best we can," said Sgt. Shawn Sisk, who leads the district's community policing office. "We can't stop that from happening; however, we're not going to support it. We don’t want that to send a false sense of security to the neighborhood."

Um, a highly visible number of officer on patrol is a deterrent in itself there Sherlock. And the community isn't feeling it. So they reach outside the Department hierarchy to remedy the situation, by hiring members of the Department that they obviously know and trust and ...get this...pay them out of their own pockets to make them feel safer!

And what about the manpower issues?

• But resident Andrew Glatz said the private patrols were not meant as an affront to the police department, but rather a complement. He said the trained officers know what to look for when out on patrol.
  
  "Given the cutbacks ... we just felt it was imperative to us to give extra eyes and ears to the police," Glatz said, comparing the move to patients at "wonderful hospitals" who might hire private nurses.

Cutbacks? There were cutbacks? Oh wait, that's just a direct way of saying what the city calls "reduction by attrition" where they don't open bids so people might be able to bid to a relatively nice assignment in a quieter district. We heard that the manpower numbers in the entire 024 District are well under 200 cops. For comparison purposes, a busy District like 007 will field more officers on any given day (even with one-third of officers RDO and another 7% on furlough) that 024 has on an entire watch.

• But the police — in one of the safest districts in the city — implored residents to stop the patrols.
  
  Richard Concaildi, the CAPS beat facilitator for the area, encouraged residents to rely on 911 when they feel unsafe or witness suspicious behavior.

Didn't a few south side aldercreatures start up neighborhood patrols made up of off-duty cops to patrol business areas and politically sensitive blocks? And weren't these officers paid from a special fund collected from businesses, churches and interested citizens? And weren't the officers from the nearby district and therefore have a pretty good working knowledge of exactly what was going on?

But here's a CAPS weasel saying "rely on 911!" The community isn't stupid, they've seen the reductions in manpower, they feel the violence/intimidation getting worse, their still willing to put out a little extra money for protecting their families, but this moron wants them to rely on a system and an organization that they feel has already failed them. That is some dumb shit.

And stop fucking with coppers' side-jobs.