More Number Games

The media publishes City Hall press releases just like the good little ass-kissers they are:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson announced Sunday that over 100 new police officers were being deployed across the city.
  
  The new officers are being hired as part of the CPD’s plan to add nearly 1,000 cops to the police force, according to Emanuel’s office. More than 2,400 CPD members have been hired or promoted as part of the department’s hiring plan, which started last year. That includes 1,600 new recruits, 77 lieutenants, 214 sergeants, 370 detectives and 213 field training officers who have entered the police training academy.

Once again, providing smokescreens to Rahm's reelection efforts:

• Where does the media think the lieutenants, sergeants, detectives and FTO's come from? It's not like there are all these unemployed cops wandering around waiting for the CPD to come offer them a job.
  
  FTO's and detectives all come from the blue shirts. So those 583 were already employed by the Department.
  
  Sergeants come from the detective, FTO and Patrol Division ranks. So a few of those new 214 sergeants were already counted among the previous promotees, and the rest were taken away from existing spots.
  
  The lieutenants ALL come from the sergeant rank, so those 214 "new" sergeants are actually only a net gain of 137.

You see where we're going with this. The media fails to just come out and ask, "How many sworn officers do you have on the payroll today as compared to this time last year? And how many officers of all ranks retired in the past 12 months?"

That might prove embarrassing to Rahm, especially as the Department is canceling days off for numerous units and teams along with offering overtime for five straight days in July (03, 04, 05, 06 and 07) for the expected holiday mayhem. If we were anywhere near full strength (such as it is), there wouldn't be massive overtime expenditures.