Most of the List

The large portion of the list of changes (as we've been able to determine via emails)

• Area 1 DC Jose Tirado; XO Cmdr Dion Boyd
  Area 3 DC Dan O'Shea; XO Cmdr Mike Pigott
  Area 4 DC Ernest Cato; XO Cmdr Rod Robinson
  Area 5 DC Roberto Nieves; XO Cmdr Fabian Saldana
  
  Dep Chief of Patrol (?): Randy Darlin
  
  Commanders:
  Jacob Alderden - 001
  Joshua Wallace - 002
  Felipe Garcia - 004
  Glenn White - 005
  Larry Snelling- 007
  Gil Calderon - 010
  Jill Stevens - 018
  Sean Joyce - 022
  Jim Sanchez - Gang Intel
  Duane DeVries - Intel
  Kevin Bruno - IRT
  Eve Gushes - FRU
  Antoinett Ursitti - CIT
  
  Detective Commanders:
  Area 1 Tom Miles
  Area 2 Joel Howard
  Area 4 Rich Wiser
  Area 5 Eric Winstrom
  
  Deputy Chiefs
  Migdalia Bulnes - Det
  Dan Godsel - Academy
  Kevin Johnson - CAPS
  Chris Kennedy - Anti Terrorism
  
  Chiefs
  Eric Carter- Anti Terrorism
  Brendan Deenihan - Det
  Jim O'Donnell - Constitutional Policing

Seems like a lot of over-supervision and duplication in the Detective division, unless our emails were reading something other than the changes? Also, Barb West isn't listed here and she's been put into the #3 spot, probably anticipating the departure of Riccio in the near future.

We also don't have a list of demotions, though we understand Staples has been dropped to Street Deputy.

Facial Recognition

If you're putting your information out there in a public forum without any sort of filters or cares, then you deserve whatever you have coming to you if you're committing crimes:

• The Chicago Police Department is using a controversial facial recognition tool that allows investigators to search an image of unknown suspects to see if it matches a database of three billion photos lifted from websites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter — a technology privacy advocates say is so ripe for abuse that cops should stop using it immediately.
  
  Clearview AI, the Manhattan-based firm that developed the software, has come under fire after the New York Times published a bombshell report detailing the privacy concerns its technology has brought to the fore. A lawsuit was filed in federal court in Chicago earlier this month seeking to halt the company’s data collection.
  
  “It’s frightening,” Chicago attorney Scott Drury, who filed the lawsuit, said of CPD’s decision to team up with Clearview AI.

"Frightening" in that suspects might be positively identified in short order after being caught on one of the tens of thousands of Chicago cameras and defense attorneys might not be able to use the usual lies to confuse juries?

Crimesha Drops Booze-O Charges

Charges dropped:

• Prosecutors have dropped all criminal charges against a Chicago cop who was accused of battering an on-duty officer outside a Boystown bar while dressed as a clown on Halloween night.
  
  And a woman who was charged with emailing a false report of a mass shooting at the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) has reached a deferred prosecution deal with prosecutors.
  
  Prosecutors have agreed to drop all charges against Chicago Police Officer Karina Salgado, the 30-year-old cop who had been accused of striking an on-duty officer in the face after she had a dispute with a Boystown nightclub doorman on Halloween night.

There's still the IAD case. Perhaps Beck isn't laughing?

Crimesha also dropped these charges:

• Alison Yohanna, the former COPA employee of who was accused of filing a false report and official misconduct stemming from a false mass shooting report, has entered a one-year deferred prosecution agreement, according to court records.
  
  Yohanna was accused of sending a Dec. 28, 2018, email to the Chicago Inspector General’s office in which she claimed that another COPA worker was planning a mass shooting at the agency’s office.

No rhyme or reason to any of this.

Don't Be Stupid

This is probably not a smart idea:

• (012) (3rd Watch) so anyone know who was the individual or individuals who recorded the Sgt. at roll call? We were all told there was going to be an investigation and getting an open CR or possibly fired from the job. All of a sudden it’s hush hush as though nothing ever happened??

You're much better off documenting who was present at roll call and having everyone give a statement as to the Sergeant stupidity. Illinois has some of most restrictive laws regarding recording - two party consent and all that - strictly to prevent this sort of thing from being used in state courts and also to identify/punish/fire whistle-blowers. God forbid you actually catch the connected acting illegally and having nothing apart from multiple witnesses giving the same information.

Merchants Make More Noise

This is how cities die - the retail merchants move out:

• A recent rash of robberies on the Magnificent Mile, including one with thieves dressed as construction workers busted into a jewelry store. High-end stores with low-end looks along Michigan Avenue lately. But on Thursday Chicago police were visible and present. There’s even armed security at some stores, like Saks Fifth Avenue.
  
  It comes after scenes like the one Wednesday afternoon when a group hit Sephora, Ferragamo and Burberry. On Sunday, video shows a smash and grab with 150 pieces of jewelry, gone in less than two minutes. Earlier this month, a $50,000 burglary at a Louis Vuitton store. There were 66 retail theft reports for the first three weeks of the year on the Mag Mile stretch.
  
  Last year it was 59.
  
  Some business owners said they are getting tired of dealing with more thefts. “I feel like we need a little bit more protection,” said Carmen Imbrogno of Na Hoku Jewelers.

Well, then you need to stop supporting democrats and kow-towing to their bullshit. If there is no punishment for retail crimes, then you are going to get more retail crimes. Everyone with a brain knows it.

More Changes?

We're getting under City Hall's skin, publishing correct information as to changes, so badly to the point that Groot delays demotions lest it look like she isn't controlling the flow of information.

What was the word used so many years ago? Oh yeah - "insignificant."

So as City Hall digs and digs for the mole, we'll just type this and see how close we can time it to the actual announcement. We're typing this Sunday night, late, and setting the clock to post it Thursday at 0701 hours - four days from now.

• Kimble and Cindy S(h)am are next...looks like Thursday, 30 Jan 2020 will be the announcement for organizational changes and quiet demotions. As a side note, Groot despises the CPD entanglements that have festered over the last 3 years BUT not as much as she hates SCC scooping City Hall.

Let's see if we were correct.

Big Ol Brass Ones

Imagine heading to the hospital after being shot, and you see the getaway truck of the guy who just shot you:

• A Chicago police sergeant was wounded in the wrist as he tailed a white pickup truck suspected in a fatal shooting, then was picked up by other officers and continued the pursuit, pulling a gun on the suspect after he was stopped near Stroger Hospital, according to authorities.
  
  The 36-year-old South Side suspect was arrested, and a gun was confiscated, police said. The officer was taken to Stroger, across the Eisenhower Expressway, and was listed as stable.
  
  [...] The sergeant pursued the suspect’s truck about a block south to Wilcox Street, where the suspect fired twice and hit the sergeant in the wrist, police said.
  
  Harrison District tactical officers in the area met up with the sergeant and started driving him east toward Stroger, police said. “We have the officer in our car, we’re driving him to Stroger right now,” an officer radioed. “He’s got a gunshot wound to his left forearm.”
  
  On the way, the sergeant spotted the suspect and the tactical team started chasing the truck. “While en route to the hospital, the officer and the transporting unit observed the offender in the pickup truck," Chicago police Interim Superintendent Charlie Beck said at the hospital. The driver asked the sergeant, “Did he still want to go directly to the hospital or should they apprehend the offender. He elected they should apprehend the offender.”

Well done. Seriously.

This Ain't Kansas Anymore

It certainly isn't Cook County:

• A Chicago man who was one of three people involved in the armed carjacking of a Wheaton couple was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison, according to DuPage County court records.
  
  In a negotiated plea, Phillip Smith, 28, pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular hijacking and agreed to the 20-year term in exchange for prosecutors dropping other counts he faced, court records say.
  
  Smith, previously of the 3900 block of West Flournoy Street, and two other men are accused of following a Wheaton couple to their residence on the night of Feb. 22, 2017. Smith and Carlos Moore, both wearing masks, allegedly accosted the couple at gunpoint in their garage and demanded the keys to the car. The trio left with the vehicle and were later able to elude police in a chase after the car was spotted. It was later recovered in a Chicago parking lot, authorities said.

We heard Crimesha files some sort of "friend of the criminal" brief, but DuPage laughed it out of court.

Happy Juicy Smollett Day

It was actually yesterday, but what the heck. And his lawyers have been awfully busy subpoenaing a certain disgraced supernintendo:

• Attorneys for actor Jussie Smollett have subpoenaed a slew of documents about the scandal that led to the ouster last month of Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, including any paperwork showing he was “untruthful or misleading in any statement.”
  
  The seemingly odd request indicates an apparent attempt to paint Johnson as untrustworthy as part of Smollett’s countersuit against the city’s attempt to collect overtime pay incurred by police during its investigation last year into the then-"Empire" actor’s claim that he had been beaten in a racist and homophobic attack.
  
  Johnson was one of Smollett’s harshest critics, making several impassioned public comments accusing the actor of orchestrating a fake hate crime on himself last January.

It would be amusing if this subpoena suddenly revealed some of the machinations behind the Lie-tenant Testing Scandal and subsequent coverup by Special Ed, his command staff and the Inspector General's whitewash.

44%???

Rumor of the day:

• Get this - passing score for Part I of the sergeants exam has been set at 44%

Remember, when taking an exam, you're only as good as the dumbest clout baby.

And you can rest assured that the guy or gal with 44% will be promoted along with officers scoring in the top 100. In fact, they'll be answering your "Request for a Supervisor" calls and talking to citizens, all while knowing less than 50% of the testable portion of the job.

Officer Shot - 011 (UPDATES)

Wounded, headed to Stroger.

UPDATE: In the hand/wrist

UPDATE: Offender in custody.

Offender had just murdered someone in 011

UPDATE: Sergeant from a Homan Square unit

Testing Disaster

Our e-mail lit up with stories of the CFD test disaster today. Here's a sampling:

• I’m a long time member of the CFD, and an avid reader of SCC ready to go this November (can’t wait to gtfo). The oral exams for our Lt’s exam were scheduled for yesterday 1/27, and today 1/28. Yesterday’s exam was wrought with “technical difficulties“, so much so that some participants weren’t getting out of the exam until around midnight.
  
  Today, more of the same until the H.R. misfits, along with our Eddie Johnson alter ego Commissioner Rich Ford and his sorry ass underlings cancelled the oral exams, told todays participants to go home or go back to work, and they had no clue as to how to rectify the issues, or when the exams would be rescheduled. They then cancelled the oral exams for Battalion Chiefs scheduled for tomorrow. I’m just wonder if CPD exams have gone the same.

It gets worse:

• The Chicago Fire Department had some major issues over the last few days with "Part 2" of their Lieutenants exam. On Monday members of the CFD who were part of the AM and PM sessions spent anywhere from ten to twelve hours taking Part 2 of the exam. Apparently there were major technical issues that were never explained to members being tested. The afternoon session today (Tuesday) was sent home after standing around for close to two hours before being sent home.
  
  To say the Firefighters taking the exam were not pleased is an extreme understatement. As the CFD Commissioner tried to speak to the semi-hostile crowd, he was booed heavily (along with other CFD brass). Many were yelling about the $38 fee to park at McCormick Place for the exam. All the Commissioner could do to calm the crowd was tell them that he would look into free parking when Part 2 (for Tuesday's afternoon group was rescheduled (Wink..Wink).
  
  Now my point is that many of our brother and sisters of the CPD will be taking "Part 2" of the Sergeants Exam soon, using the same "Cubicle Style" setup, and if the CFD doesn't work out the issues, it's going to be a long day for everybody taking Part 2 of the Sergeants Exam.

It gets even worse from there:

• Part 2 for all Firefighters has been tossed! Look for the lawsuits to begin! It is unknown how many have already taken the second part of the exam, but die to major issues the CFD has tossed Part 2....for now.
  
  Supposedly the company they used for this test is the same company from previous exams with major lawsuits, but this time they changed their name

So how many millions were spent on this promotional exam? And it's all just been flushed down the toilet.

And how many millions more were spent on the CPD sergeants test? And it's something like ten times the size of the Fire Lieutenant test.

Anyone sick of the popcorn yet?

Another $50 to the Chaplains

The Wod makes the news:

• A high-ranking Chicago police official was relieved of his police powers on Tuesday as part of an investigation into allegations that he refused to stop when an Indiana State Police trooper tried to pull him over for speeding last year, officials said.
  
  Edward Wodnicki, a former commander of the Area Central detective division, was reassigned to paid desk duty without the authority to make arrests or carry a gun during the course of his police duties following the June incident on Interstate 94 in northwest Indiana. The department said Wodnicki has also voluntarily stepped down as a commander, taking a demotion to his service rank of lieutenant.
  
  The decision to take away Wodnicki’s police powers is the latest high-profile staffing move by interim police Superintendent Charlie Beck since he was put in charge temporarily in December by Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
  
  The department said there were possible inconsistencies with statements Wodnicki made to police Internal Affairs investigators as they tried to learn why he was in Indiana when he sped back to Chicago in his city-issued vehicle.

We're certain he had the authorization papers to travel out-of-state with a city vehicle - ALL out of state trips require this waiver. At least, they did when we were lucky enough to have to take an unmarked squad car over a certain border. There wouldn't be two sets of rules for the connected, right?

Baby Shot

Someone said this was CHA property, and guns are banned on CHA property. So this is (once again) an impossibility:

• A 1-year-old boy was shot in the head Monday in Uptown while his parents tussled over a gun inside their home and it went off — not by a stray bullet, as his father claimed, Chicago police say.
  
  Detectives determined the parents were struggling over a gun inside their home when it discharged and a bullet ricocheted and struck the 23-month-old boy, police spokesman [Google-me] said in an interview Tuesday morning.
  
  “The bullet didn’t penetrate the skull,” [Google-me] said. “He’ll be fine.”

As Google-me is neither a doctor or a sociologist, we're going to take issue with his diagnosis of "He'll be fine." After all, we're reading about his parents in the Sun Times. He's very very far from "fine."

The "Training"

Someone found the website outlining the purpose of the "training" we wrote about yesterday:

• Overview
  
  In partnership with the Chicago Police Department, this project will develop and test a police training program to improve officer decision-making in high-stakes situations for the safety of officers and community members alike.
  
  Grant Amount: $570,240
  Organization: University of Chicago
  [...] Expected Completion Date: mid-2021
   
• Purpose: Develop and test a police training program to improve officer decision-making in high-stakes situations, and evaluate the program using a randomized control trial. 

From what we've heard, we and others are questioning the study protocols. In fact, a number of people have written to the head of the Department and received a very nice reply:

• Thank you for brining [sic] this to our attention. We see many training-related evaluation studies that the university runs in partnership with (and at the request of) the CPD. I will determine what study this is and reach out to the study teams so this can be addressed ASAP as it should never be the case that people be forced to participate in a research study and sign a consent form. In some of these cases, the training itself is mandatory because CPD has decided to adopt and test it, but consenting to allow the data/results to also be used for research purposes is always voluntary and no one should be pressured into research participation.
  
  Please let me know if you have any questions and again, thanks for bringing this to our intention.
  
  Cheri Pettey
  Director, Social and Behavioral Sciences IRB
  1155 E. 60th Street, Room 418
  Chicago, IL 60637
  (773) 702-2915
  
  cpettey@uchicago.edu
  http://sbsirb.uchicago.edu/
  

So if anyone is ordered to sign a form, they'd be on solid ground refusing - that's our opinion, not a legal decision. Don't be the City test case. As to participation, direction should be sought from the FOP lawyers.

Another Tool Gone

And by tool, we don't mean the current crop of exempts. We mean an actual tool that worked occasionally in predicting crime:

• After 10 years, the Chicago Police Department has decommissioned an enormous database that, ostensibly, used analytics in an effort to predict which people are most likely to be involved in shootings — as either the shooter or the victim.
  
  The “Strategic Subject List” was quietly put out to pasture in November, according to the Office of the Inspector General, which had raised several issues regarding the program’s efficacy.
  
  CPD used the list to identify which prior arrestees would be most likely to carry out shootings, or be victims of shootings — referred to as being a “party to violence.”
  
  The list also was used to target gang members and their associates through information gathering, analysis and social network mapping, according to the office of Inspector General Joe Ferguson.

Not to mention (as we did years ago) that police don't usually single out people/folks for crimes they "might" commit at a later date. Sure, the database pointed out people with a propensity for committing violent crime or being subjected to violent crimes. But any decent street copper with a knowledge of their Beat/District/Area could tell you the exact same thing....and for a lot less money.

But any database that points out certain uncomfortable facts is unwelcome in the new "progressive" Chicago.

What's This BS?

Forced compliance?

• [Situational Decision Making] is an hour long "training" that the district is making each PO go to during their tour of duty. At the academy, not city/dept required training. It's Univ of Chicago civilians doing it. It is a "shoot-dont shoot" type scenario that you get put in. At the end of it the instructors give the POs a consent form to sign. In order to allow them to use what your decision was in their study. POs have been refusing to sign, and now a Sgt has been coming down to "order" us to sign. This whole thing seems completely wrong , but sadly typical.

How "legit" can this "study" be if (A) you're forced to participate and (B) you're forced to sign off on the results? Is there some federal grant money attached to this with CPD as the guinea pigs?

Anyone know what this is supposed to accomplish, given that the U of Chicago faculty is notoriously "progressive" and decidedly anti law enforcement.

Is it Hot in Here?

So the brand new building at O'Hare doesn't have heat, has sporadic electrical problems and the toilets backed up the first week, lending the scent of raw sewage to the new paint smell. Contrast that to 111th Street, where they can't seem to turn the heat off:

Have they been taking detectives out with heat stroke?

And is Roderick available to fix the pipes?

Get Behind the Vest - New Dates

Looking for a new Bullet-Resistant vest?

These locations are a bit more central than the last one.

Mark your calendars.

Opening the State Constitution?

This is the first we're hearing of this and it needs thorough researching and verification. Opening the State Constitution via a back door method which would end up screwing up all current and future pensioners:

• When FOP Board Members like Donahue, continue to support their progressive political pets, like Senator Rob Martwick, they are supporting opening the Illinois Constitution. Opening the Illinois Constitution will allow these progressive politicians to change the state’s pension clause.
  
  The FOP has continually claimed politicians like Martwick and Madigan are fighting to protect or pensions and that’s what makes them “qualified” to be recommended by our Union. Donahue has thrown 10’s of thousands of dollars of our dues, at Martwick and Madigan to “protect our pensions.”
  
  The interesting part of this is, politicians like Martwick and Madigan have been pushing the Graduated Income Tax or also known as the Progressive Tax , since 2016. If the Graduated Income Tax passes, the Illinois State Constitution will be opened up so the wording can be amended to change the flat tax to a progressive tax. What Donahue isn’t telling the members is that while the Sate Constitution is open, to amend the tax clause, it will also be open to change the state’s pension clause. That piece of paper that states, “Membership in any pension or retirement system of the State, any unit of local government or school district, or any agency or instrumentality thereof, shall be an enforceable contractual relationship, the benefits of which shall not be diminished or impaired,” is all that’s standing in the way of politicians, like Martwick, from completely gutting our pensions.
  
  Once they get their Graduated Income Tax passed, they can use that as a back door to change our pension clause to diminish or impair our pensions. So Donahue is supporting a politician who is not interested in protecting our pensions, but is pushing to open a door for them to walk right in an take it.

So they can use the Graduated Income Tax as a crowbar to amend the Constitution to comply with the new passed law? If we're understanding this, it would circumvent the Constitutional Convention vote that is required to be held every 20 years and endanger all pensions immediately.

We have stated before, we aren't pension experts. We can't go around to the Board and ask for info, post it and someone puts two-and-two together. Is there someone out there suitably versed in Pension Law who can enlighten the readership.

Martwick has already proven he can't be trusted, appointing "progressive" convicted-felon-supporting candidates who worked for former alderasshole Arena. Martwick is a snake and those in the FOP who supported him need to be made to explain their actions.

Drunk Hits Cops

West side:

• Two Chicago police officers were injured when their squad car was struck by the vehicle of a woman who was reportedly driving under the influence of alcohol, authorities said.
  
  About 2:40 a.m. Sunday, the officers were on the West Side in a marked squad car with lights and sirens activated, as the officers headed to a call of a fire. As their vehicle entered the intersection of North Pulaski Road and West Erie Street in West Garfield Park, heading south on Pulaski and about to make a left turn onto Erie, the pair’s unit was struck, officials said.
  
  A black 2012 Volkswagen sedan driven by a woman, 60, hit the Chicago police car, police said. The male officers, whose ages were not released, suffered injuries not considered to be life-threatening, according to authorities. They were treated at an area hospital and both were in good condition Sunday.

Not even looking for a DUI arrests - headed to a fire. Wishing you a speedy recovery Officers.

Bad January

HeyJackass.com has Chicago at 29 homicides so far.

There's also one brain dead in the hospital and at least one "death investigation."

It's the worst January in five years.

Any guesses if the Department holds the monthly "Crime is down!" press conference this week?

Somewhere, Gus Tero Weeps

What pansy cried about this?

• The other Johnson in charge of the academy, has ordered that at no time will recruits be placed in front, lean and rest. It’s too hard on them. Also, there’s no incentive at all to keep the new recruits fit. They can stay as fat as when they start and blow the fuck up to the fatasses that are currently floating around the districts! It’s always been like that, but holy fuck! There’s more of them and they look like stuffed sausages much sooner!

Rumor is this is somehow connected to saving the pensions. Recruits start fatter, gain weight quicker, die before age fifty, and :::voila::: Pension savings!

Boys and Girls

Some millennial snowflake has infiltrated the comment section, claiming to be triggered when we (or a commentator) uses the term, "boys and girls" when addressing the readers. We don't know to which gender they ascribe to, but we're betting they didn't grow up in Chicago-proper.

"Boys and girls" is a commonly used term when addressing those younger or less experienced in the Department, kind of like, "kid." We still remember one of our first robbery arrests when the detectives showed up and used that time honored classic, "What'd'ya got Kid?"

We probably could have given this old timer a run for his money one-on-one, being thirty years younger than he was, but we didn't have anything like his depth of knowledge and we wanted this to go smoothly. Also, we were taught to respect the older cops who had been around a while, survived numerous riots, maybe a hitch in the service, and god only knows how many bosses and politicians. We called him "Gramps" once or twice, he "motherfucked" us, and we got along fantastically.

We weren't insulted. We weren't triggered. Mainly because we weren't raised to be pussies, but because we took it for granted that one day, we would be that old timer, imparting knowledge of procedure to the younger guys and gals.

Grow some thicker skin asshat.

Lisle Shooting

Off-duty and retired ISP Troopers attacked at a cigar bar:

• A woman accused of shooting three Illinois State Troopers Friday night, killing one, had attended the same west suburban high school as the slain trooper and had a valid license to carry a concealed gun, according to police.
  
  The woman, identified as 51-year-old, Lisa V. McMullan, of the 1400 block of East 55th Place in Chicago, opened fire on the three state troopers shortly after 10 p.m. Friday while they were together at the Humidor, a cigar lounge located at 1600 Ogden Ave. in west suburban Lisle, according to Lisle police and the DuPage County coroner’s office.
  
  Gregory Rieves, a 51-year-old retired state trooper with 22 years of experience, was killed and two other state troopers — one retired and the other off-duty — were wounded before McMullan turned the gun on herself, authorities said.

RIP Troop. And hopefully a speedy and uneventful recovery to the wounded.

More Cops!!! Please!

Some people are noticing that when the cops disappear from "quiet" neighborhoods, the neighborhood suddenly isn't so quiet anymore:

• Hundreds of Albany Park and Irving Park residents packed a Thursday night meeting to demand more police officers be assigned to the area — and found out it’s happening. Thanks to community demands, the Albany Park (17th) Police District will be getting at least 10 new police officers, State Rep. Jaime Andrade, Jr. announced during the meeting at Bateman Elementary, 4220 N. Richmond St.
  
  The meeting was organized by a new group known as the Northwest Safety Coalition, a “super group” of existing organizations that came together in response to crime in the neighborhood. The group includes The Residents of Irving Park, Horner Park Neighbors, Irving Park East Neighborhood Association, Irving Park Concerned Neighbors Association, Women of the 33rd Ward and Israel’s Gifts of Hope.
  
  Some neighbors have been asking for more cops in the Albany Park Police District since October, when there were a series of shootings. Joanna Read, one of the neighbors who helped organize Thursday’s meeting, said the local police district has lost nearly 20 officers over the past two years. She and other members of the coalition used information from the city’s data portals to document the decline.

So even if they get those ten cops, they're still down ten from two years ago. And of those ten, even if they're divided evenly among the watches, that's three per watch, and one of those is RDO at any given time.

So 017 gains one squad car per shift...on average. And who knows, maybe that car makes all the difference, especially on Irving Park Road. But maybe it doesn't, and the years of draining "quiet" districts comes back to bite the citizens in the butt who (if we're reading this electoral map correctly) voted for Rahm and Groot and Crimesha.

Weed by the Forklift-full

We thought this stuff was legal:

• A months-long undercover investigation led to the arrest of a Homer Glen man accused of trafficking a large amount of marijuana.
  
  Abdulaziz Abouelkheir, 34, was arrested Thursday in River North and charged with a felony count of cannabis trafficking over 5kg and a felony count of cannabis manufacture/delivery between 10 and 30 grams, Chicago police said.
  
  Officers seized 64 pounds of cannabis and THC edibles, as well as a Land Rover and a forklift, police said.

Must not have had a tax stamp. JB the Hutt has to get his cut.

Oh Yeah

That new law to let eligible high school students leave school for two hours to vote? We have the smartest readers in the world:

• Every single one of them could note by mail;
• Just about every high school is a polling place. Develop a way they could vote their precinct from their high school and they never have to leave the building.

Goodness forbid they get high, get robbed or get killed when they're supposed to be voting. Someone will be looking for some sort of payout.

As Predicted Here and Elsewhere

Those "Weed Amnesty" boxes at the airports? Not very secure at all:

• Marijuana has only been legal in Illinois for 23 days, so in the minds of some, the crime that occurred Wednesday at Chicago's Midway Airport was only a matter of time.
  
  Chicago Police confirm that a traveler arriving in Chicago grabbed the pot inside Midway's so-called "amnesty box", a storage unit near security where passengers can surrender their newly-legal marijuana before traveling.
  
  A source told NBC5 the marijuana in question had been discovered on a traveler early Wednesday, and that person was escorted to the amnesty box where they were allowed to deposit their weed without penalty.
  Local
  
  When police went to empty the box around 8pm, the marijuana was gone. A check of airport surveillance cameras showed a man grabbing the pot and hurrying away, around 6 p.m.

Um...so what? A traveler, in order to avoid running afoul of Federal Law, voluntarily deposits a completely legal (in Illinois) substance into an "amnesty" box. An observant citizen accesses and removes said substance that is completely legal (in Illinois) and voluntarily surrendered.

It's like rifling through someone's garbage can in the alley - there's no expectation of privacy or possession when you toss it out in a publicly accessible area. There's no crime here that we can see. What say the readers?

Leadfoot Demoted - One to Go? (UPDATE)

Pride goeth before destruction:

• The Wod demoted to Lt today...heading to Patrol

The Wod has spent the last few months telling everyone that he was headed back to his spot. We must have had a dozen e-mails and three times that many comments all relating he was going to beat this thanks to clout and some fast talking. Sounds like he hit some spike-strips on the straightaway.

But once again, our deeply placed source who predicted one exempt from each of the major food groups (white, black, brown) was going to be demoted to send a message that the old ways were over and the old guard was on notice, stood by their info:

• Escamerit (brown)
• Wodnicki (white)

Who will the unlucky black guy be?

We don't think Special Ed counts as he was actually shitcanned and the prediction / info was made long after Ed had announced his impending departure. The Johnson's Johnson Scandal merely accelerated a known departure.

UPDATE: Doss. We had forgotten about him after the Lolla scandal. We'll have to check the calendar and see where his demotion fell, but that could be the last of the Rainbow Demotions.

Spitter Back in Custody

Remember the Thanksgiving asshole? He went back out to steal some more booze for Mom:

• Hey Scc, does the name Bernard KERSH JR. ring a bell? Well he was the offender who spit in the officers face a few months back and taken to the ground and placed under arrest. And guess what, he’s currently sitting in central detention charged with a Strong Arm Robbery after he stole a bottle of tequila and some flowers from the Jewels in 001 and proceeded to strike the female security guard in the chest as she attempted to stop him from leaving the parking lot. He was arrested blocks away without incident but he apparently gave the processing officers a lot of lip. 

Remember, he was charged with Aggravated Battery to the police, and here he is committing battery against another protected employee, shoplifting, and just generally being a drain on society, thanks to Crimesha.

Another "Merit" Scandal?

With roots in Chicago:

• Harvey police Chief Eddie Winters told CBS 2 Thursday night that the mayor placed him on administrative leave.
  
  Winters said Mayor Christopher Clark informed him of the move by personal email. He called the move “totally unexpected,” and said does not want to reveal reasons the mayor gave for it.
  
  Harvey Ald. Dominique Randle-EL said the mayor plans to discuss the reason for placing Winters on leave at a Monday Harvey City Council meeting.

Winters was a multiple "merit" here in Chicago before leaving a year or so after his car was shot up in 012 while he was headed home from a still unrevealed rendezvous, and now he might be out of another job.

The Final Nail in the Coffin

Get a clue boys and girls - your continued employment is at stake:

• A long-stalled ordinance paving the way for civilian police oversight will pass the City Council in February or March — before Mayor Lori Lightfoot chooses a permanent replacement for fired CPD Supt. Eddie Johnson, an influential alderman predicted Thursday.
  
  Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th), chairman of the City Council’s Committee on Public Safety, said negotiators for the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability and the mayor’s office are closing in on an agreement that includes at least a partially-elected board with policy-making authority shared with the Chicago Police Department.
  
  “I see movement on this. I’m hopeful that we’ll bring in February or March a final version that can be voted on by this committee,” said Taliaferro, a former Chicago Police officer.
  
  Taliaferro spoke Thursday after the latest in a seemingly-endless string of “subject matter hearings” on the vexing issue of civilian police review.

Guess who's going to be elected? Assholes like Lemonhead or Jamal.

And guess what attitudes they're going to bring with them?

Hey Dummies

This has to be one of the stupidest ideas ever:

• Illinois students don’t have to play hookie or worry about rushing to the polls after school anymore thanks to a new law that allows students to be excused from class to cast their ballots.
  
  Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation this week giving Illinois students two hours away from school to vote in a primary, general, special or any other public election.
  
  “With this new law, our voting-eligible young people will have the freedom to fit voting into their school day without fear of repercussion for engaging in the very civic education we should all be proud to encourage,” Pritzker said in a statement. “The young people who advocated for this legislation recognized how important it is not only to vote, but to make the act of voting as accessible for all who can vote.”

Um...the polls open at 6:00 AM. They close at 7:00 PM.

Last we checked, school didn't start until 8:45 AM and was out at 3:45 PM. That's already two hours before school and three hours after school. Tens of thousands of people with actual jobs working eight hours a day manage to get to the polls and vote. J.B. the Hutt thinks kids in the one of the worst scoring school districts in the world need to miss two hours of class time to vote?

Makes perfect sense.

Smart911?

First we heard of it, and it sounds like a good idea....in theory:

• Shortly after his stunning decision not to seek a third-term, Rahm Emanuel asked Chicagoans who might be afraid to share their personal information to take a leap of faith — by creating a “safety profile” with a new system he called, “Smart911.”
  
  The $300,000-a-year system allowed victims of domestic violence to share images, descriptions of abusers and orders of protection. It included medical histories like allergies, diabetes and epilepsy as well as medications, mental and behavioral health conditions.
  
  Giving first-responders as much information as possible before they arrive on the scene had great potential to save lives and de-escalate dangerous situations. But it would only be as good as the information Chicagoans volunteered to provide.
  
  Now, City Hall is acknowledging only 15,550 residents have enrolled in Smart911 in the 16 months since Emanuel announced it with great fanfare.

It's good to see the inherent distrust of government still runs deep, even in a democrat shithole like Chicago. Illegals aren't going to participate, nor are those who live outside of the law or have had experience within the justice system. Neither are the scammers who might be collecting extra monies via fraud (like dead Mom's Social Security checks.) Then there are the people who remember city employees are notorious for harvesting and selling information to gangs, lawyers and bill collectors.

Any guesses where the 15,500 participants are clustered?

You're Welcome Rod

Guess what got fixed this week?

And we're sure that Rod will try to take the credit for the quick repairs. Not the potential embarrassment that Facilities Management might suffer, the OSHA complaints, and a weeks worth of pictures that we would have been happy to publish of all the Port-o-Shitters parked outside of the 007 District.

Seriously Roderick?

We had no idea that the command staff doubled as plumbers:

• Commander of 007 Rowdy Roderick was furious pictures of the urinals were up. He came in to roll calls screaming about the “bullshit blog” and how he doesn’t give a fuck. He told officers he’s going to make sure the urinals take longer to fix now. “If we make him look stupid, we’re going to pay a heavy price,” starting with lunches. He also mentioned he’s “federally trained” now and we better watch out because he has access to specific technology that can be used to trace blog posts.

Um, dude? This wasn't a slap at you. Up until this moment in time, we assumed that Facilities Management and Building Engineers were in charge of plumbing and heating and electricity in the buildings. We had no idea you were in the trades, that you were responsible for all the crappy (no pun intended) plumbing across Districts and that you would be so petty as to deny the men of the 007th District access to clean, sanitary bathroom areas in which to vent their bladders.

But now that we know this, be prepared for a huge list of complaints.

And Supoerintendent Beck, we aren't sure, but using government technology to intimidate off duty personnel from exercising their First Amendment Rights.....you might want to have a little sit down with this particular plumber. He sounds like he's suffering from some form of a clogged large intestine.

You know, he's full of shit.

Groot to Break the Law

One of our white shirt readers sends along this interesting bit of news from the PBPA unions - Groot is pushing hard to violate State Law and will be throwing a tantrum if she doesn't get her way:

• You're going to love this one. We got a letter from the union the other day and it says:
  
  Mayor Lightfoot actually appeared and testified on behalf of the city during one meeting. [...] The city is still stressing that the contract allow for the taking of anonymous [complaints] and also doing away with the signed affidavit. She also mentioned that if the contract does not include allowing anonymous [complaints] she will urge the city council to vote down the arbitrator's contract proposal.
  
  [...] It is continuously brought up that it is Illinois state law to have a signed affidavit for police complaints and a labor contract could not supersede state law.

So Groot wants the white shirts to sign off on surrendering what was one of the greatest discipline reforms in history. The PBPA would be morons to even consider it and we'd be surprised if they did. The FOP isn't going to budge and the entire mess would end up in Court in short order with Groot on the losing end. It's black letter law and you'd think a lawyer would know that.

"Progressive" Body Count

One of the NYPD police unions is putting the blame for particular murders right where it belongs - on the mayor's doorstep:

• The New York City Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA), a police union representing the city’s active and retired sergeants, blamed Mayor Bill de Blasio for the death of a 92-year-old woman.
  
  A 92-year-old woman, Maria Fuentes, was sexually assaulted and murdered on the streets of NYC earlier in January. The man suspected of killing her, Reeaz Khan, is an illegal alien who had been arrested by the New York Police Department in November 2019, but was released and never handed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) because of the city’s strict sanctuary policy.
  
  The SBA on Sunday said Fuentes would still be alive if the city’s police force had been allowed to comply with ICE’s immigration detainer request, and declared that her death was on de Blasio.

And seeing as how Cook County is one of the top three counties to ignore/disregard ICE detainer requests, it's only a matter of time before something similar, or worse, happens here. We have the same "progressive" assholes in charge ignoring Federal law.

Shots Fired at Police

Overnight in Logan Square:

• A police chase on the North Side stemmed from a shooting in Logan Square and ended in a crash in Ravenswood.
  
  A 43-year-old man was shot by someone in a passing car about 8:35 p.m. in the 3300 block of West Armitage Avenue, Chicago police said. The suspects sped off and fired shots at police during a pursuit.
  
  The chase ended in a crash in the 4400 block of North Western Avenue, police said. The totaled car could be seen outside the Albany Bank and Trust at the corner of Western and Montrose avenues Thursday evening.
  
  The people inside the vehicle were taken into custody, and a handgun was recovered.

PEhaps more info as the day progresses, but as far as we can tell, no officers injured by crashes or gunfire. Be careful out there boys and girls.

Lawsuit Over CR Files

Finally an effort to make the City live up to a Contractual agreement:

• A bonfire of critical police misconduct records – critics fear that is what could happen if Chicago’s police union wins its fight to destroy the files.
  
  CBS 2 [...] has uncovered it is a fight the Fraternal Order of Police is waging in court, and behind the scenes at the bargaining table.
  
  In cases of police misconduct, emotions run high and the damage runs deep. And until five years ago, the struggle of victims of police misconduct and their families was made even more difficult – because police misconduct records were still secret.

There wasn't anything hidden. It was part a negotiated Contract and passed by the City Council years ago. The agreement (if we recall correctly) was all "Unfounded," "Not Sustained" and "Exonerated" files would be destroyed after a period of five or seven years. The only thing that would be kept were "Sustained" findings and there may have been something about only the finding itself would be maintained in the Officer's Personnel File, the point being that an Officer's entire career shouldn't be stained by what (in most cases) was a mistake. If there was malice or law breaking, Officers would be fired.

There was no reason to keep the first three types of files, for the same reason you cannot use an offender's previous arrests against them in Court - it's prejudicial. Officers were cleared or the evidence presented was insufficient to merit any sort of discipline. The seven years was to spot any emerging patterns, i.e. numerous brutality complaints, repeated money beefs, complaints involving sexual perversions. In other words, something that might merit a closer look.

Funnily enough, we used the word "merit," and guess who had quite a few repeated complaints involving brutality, money or sexual harassment? Yup - "merit" picks. And the complaints only seem to materialize after a particularly bad scandal, which is why we suggested Beck spend some time going over the files at the Confidential Section at IAD. Beck actually made some sense in the article:

• Beck said he has mixed thoughts on whether all misconduct records should remain public.
  
  “I think that everybody understands that police officers are often subject to unfounded complaints, and do the full details of those need to be revealed? I think that’s a different question,” Beck said. “Sustained complaints I don’t have such an issue with.”

Which is why the five (or seven) year rule was negotiated into the Contract.

Crisis of the City's Making

Anyone get the feeling that City Hall is attempting to paint the First Responders in a bad light during Contract negotiations?

• Chicago taxpayers spent nearly $210 million on police and fire overtime last year — and another $33.7 million on lump-sum payments to departing employees, most of them police officers, records show.
  
  One retiring officer walked out the door with $276,053 for stockpiled compensatory time and another $9,236 for unused vacation days. Records released to the Chicago Sun-Times in response to a Freedom of Information Act request show scores of other six-figure checks and hundreds of payments that topped $20,000.
  
  In private industry, employees are routinely required to use comp time within a defined period of time. They are not allowed to accumulate a career’s worth of comp time and cash it out when they leave.
  
  City tradespeople and members of AFSCME get cash only for overtime. Their most recent contracts do not allow for comp time. Chicago police officers are exceptions to that rule.

Well Boo Hoo Hoo. These are NEGOTIATED benefits. If the City wants to change it, then they have to NEGOTIATE it. We're sorry the other unions weren't as far sighted as the FOP and PBPA were.

And this is money OWED to employees. We worked those hours and we did the City a favor by putting off the money, banking the time against family events, vacation extensions, maybe a sick child or us not hitting the Medical. If we were lucky, we didn't get sick or the kid's birthday lined up with a day off. We didn't use the hours, but we are still owed them at some point. They don't just get washed away like in the bad old days.

Here's a free suggestion for Groot - start allowing Officers to sell back hours, maybe start at fifty hours a year. We'll bet almost 80% of the Department jumps at the chance - we're talking somewhere near half-a-million hours off the books every year. You're reducing the amount of money the City is on the hook for and you're paying it out at the current rate, not the rate ten or twenty years down the road.

But that might involve actual planning by the brass and political administration instead of cancelling days off willy-nilly on holidays and ending up paying MORE overtime.....that we won't be allowed to use.

Ambulance Crew Injured

West side:

• A Chicago Fire Department paramedic was wounded in a hit-and-run after a car crashed into an ambulance Tuesday in Lawndale on the West Side.
  
  The ambulance was southbound about 1:15 p.m. in the 700 block of South California Avenue when it was struck by a Toyota that was westbound on Flournoy Street, Chicago police said.
  
  The Toyota drove off after the crash, police said.

"wounded"? That's a bit of hyperbolic exaggeration by the Sun Times. We mean, it's not like it was a cropped photo to conceal 11-and12-year-old flashing gang signs, but "wounded"? We don't think so.

At least it wasn't the 011th District hair-gels flipping the ambulance over this time.

Retroactive Crime Increase

We always ask this one and we always get a multitude of answers - what year does this one go under?

• A 41-year-old man died last week nearly 10 years after being wounded in a West Humboldt Park shooting.
  
  Just before 10 a.m. Oct. 12, 2010, Marco Rainge was shot in the 1200 block of North Kildare Avenue, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
  
  Rainge was pronounced dead about 1:45 a.m. Jan. 14, the medical examiner’s office reported. An autopsy Sunday said he died of complications from multiple gunshot wounds, and ruled his death a homicide.

We need a definitive answer so that the crew over at HeyJackass.com puts it into the correct year lest the bean counters attempt to hide yet another homicide.

FOP Win

Affecting the 006 District:

• The Lodge is happy to announce that the Illinois Appellate Court ruled today that the City must arbitrate with the Lodge on the city's attempt to change start times city-wide and eliminate day-off groups in the 6th District.
  
  The issues must go to arbitration within 30 days of today's ruling.

Somehow, the City keeps violating the Contract and daring the FOP to take them to Court. The FOP seems to prevail most of the time, but we don't have actual numbers. What is this costing the union in legal fees....and just as important, what is it costing taxpayers that the City regularly attempts to screw over the FOP?

So will they have to re-bid all the furloughs, too?

Shooting Victims Home

So the shooting in 011 the other day, five persons got shot. Two of the kids headed home:

• Two young brothers wounded in a shooting last week at an East Garfield Park barbershop have been released from the hospital.
  
  Lorenzo Matthews, 11, and his brother, 12-year-old Michael Smith, were released Saturday from Stroger Hospital, according to family spokeswoman Dawn Valenti.

The Sun Times even included a nice photograph of the young scamps:

Hmmm. This photo seems to be cropped. Maybe someone can locate the original picture on social media? You know those young kids love their social media:

Well. That's a little bit different.

And it might explain why they got shot.

Crime is Down!

But not, it seems, downtown:

• A few hundred concerned citizens huddled in a gymnasium in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood hoping for answers from police about a recent spate of robberies in the downtown area and other parts of the Near North Side.
  
  Police sought to bring a sense of calm while appealing for help from the standing room-only crowd that overflowed into the lobby of the Lake Shore Park field house.
  
  “We are having people sitting in their cars targeting people and drive around. You see the same car drive around four or five times. That is something that we need to know,” Chicago police Cmdr. Daniel O’Shea, who heads the Near North patrol district, said in a raised voice. “Please do not hesitate to call 911.”

But what happens when the occupants of said car are....ahem....of a certain persuasion Danny? Are you encouraging citizens to ::gasp!:: profile???? For shame!!!!

• Robberies have more than doubled in the last five years in this swath of Chicago’s central business district and some of the city’s most affluent neighborhoods, including Gold Coast, Streeterville, Magnificent Mile, River North and several others.
  
  Last year, robberies totaled 416 in those neighborhoods, just two more than in 2017 but more than double from 204 in 2015, according to city crime data.

And we're willing to bet that the dollar amounts have tripled - at a minimum. Criminals go to (A) where the cops aren't, (B) where the pickings are better and (C) where the consequences are non-existent, i.e. Chicago, Cook County.

Of course, these citizens downtown voted for it, and now they're experiencing the results first hand.

Tee-hee.

Another Broadside at Crimesha

Hopefully her primary opponents are taking notice:

• Hours after the clinking glasses, the merriment, and the mad celebrations observing the New Year fell silent, Chicago police officers with the 1st District were summoned by a 28-year-old man who said he had been the victim of an assault while a travelling on a southbound CTA Red Line train. Responding to the victim, police quickly confronted the offender, Tyrese Parris, who re-acted to police commands by assaulting one officer and kicking another. Despite being charged with one count of felony aggravated battery of a peace officer, two counts of resisting arrest, and two counts of battery, Parris was released after posting a measly $100 bond.
  
  A man who obviously has learned little from previous brushes with the law, Parris’ apprehension on January 1st, was the latest in a series of arrests reaching back to May 2019. An odyssey which began a mere eight months ago, Parris was charged with felony robbery, battery, and three counts of theft of lost or mislaid property in May 8. Appearing in court in September for his May crimes, Parris was sentenced to two years probation under a deal which saw the unpleasant lad enter a guilty plea to a reduced charge of theft. Two-and-a-half months later, in incidents weeks apart in December, Parris was twice delivered into the welcoming arms of Cook County prosecutors, who released him after police nabbed him for drug possession and, in the second incident, charged him with possession of burglary tools and trespassing. Despite his probation from his September charge, Parris was released on his own recognizance.
  
  A man whose zeal for criminal behavior never receded during intervals between arrests, the ease with which Mr. Parris was returned to the streets unfortunately encapsulates Cook County’s justice system under Chief Judge of the Circuit Court Timothy Evans, Sheriff Tom Dart, and State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. While Dart and Evans play a critical role in the demise of law and order in Chicago, Kim Foxx is more responsible than others for the failures which have occurred. Although a prosecutor is often confronted with a disordered and troublesome county, in the three years since she became Cook County State’s Attorney, Foxx has made the condition of law and order worse, and in some cases, markedly worse. In the course of her term, Foxx has implemented nearly every policy she envisioned as a candidate. As a result, the cumulative effects of her policy failures have been extraordinarily damaging to Cook County.

The campaign commercials should be in post production already and airing every day until the primary.

Relax Detectives

Latest word from 35th Street via City Hall:

• Although the Department wants a super-bid, they have decided to only bid Area 4 & 5 first to avoid contractual entanglements. Then back fill with a new Detective class (120) coming in February to meet operational needs (as outlined in a previous post) of all Areas.

We're guessing there will be no problem filling the old Areas.

It's Malinowski

So we were looking for confirmation on this rumor. It's a bit thin, but enough for us to run with and mess with Groot's and Beck's efforts to keep a lid on things:

• Sup - S. Malinowski (unless his business dealing get in the way);
  1st Deputy - Barb West
  Dep Sup of BIA - Konow
  Dep Sup Patrol - either Turado or Bradley;
  Dep Sup OCD (OCD may be renamed Homeland Security) - either Turado or Bradley;
  Dep Sup of D UNIT -B. Deenahan;
  Dep Sup of Org Development- Cato
  Chief South - Bulnes
  *Chief Area 5 - Nieves
  Chief Central - Piggot
  *Chief Area 3 - open (African American)
  Chief North - open (Hispanic)

Again, this is single sourced into from someone deep in the administration. We don't care about the spelling, so don't comment on it. This might make sense seeing as how Beck is bringing his shadow along to every meeting, getting his face out there and familiar to everyone who will be voting on his appointment and grilling him at the City Council.

You're wondering about the business dealings that might throw up a roadblock to Malinowski's eventual appointment? That would be these business dealings:

• Malinowski was one of a team of experts who helped the Chicago Police Department on crime issues. Under a $250-an-hour contract, Malinowski earned $223,750 between late 2016 and Feb. 9, 2018, in Chicago, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

That's quite a bit of coin for a city that's broke, or so they keep telling us. We don't know if would be an impediment to hiring or just too much money to give up for a job that means he has to listen to morons like the City Council grill him on crime stats he probably doesn't really care about.

With those names as Deputy Superintendents reporting directly to him, we'd think twice about that cast of clowns.

Weed is Bad!

This booklet from the 50's or 60-'s told us so:

We can hardly wait until retirement to try some.

Nice Brand New Building

This is what's going on at O'Hare Airport's brand new police station:

• [...at] the new station at Ohare.
  
  Just after Lightfoot left for the “opening ceremony” this is what was put out to warm the building as best they can. The heat and air conditioning in this building has not been working properly since day one.
  
  It is absolutely freezing in the entire building. There is even concern over the pipes freezing and the building flooding again.

How hard is it to build a functional facility? Isn't there a single investigative reporter who can point out the near-constant corruption that wastes taxpayer dollars at such an alarming rate.

Squadrol Shot At (UPDATE)

Friday night in Austin:

• Breaking news on the West Side tonight, a gunman shot a Chicago police car, as well as a passing car.
  
  The shooting happened around 4 p.m. at Jackson and Cicero.
  
  On-duty CPD officers traveling southbound on Cicero in a marked squadrol heard gunshots, and then discovered their vehicle was struck by gunfire coming from the 4800 block of West Van Buren, police said.

We aren't sure if they hit the wagon box or the truck itself. No one hurt thank God.

UPDATE: The bullet hole:

That could have been painful.

Detective Numbers

This is all preliminary, subject to change, part of a rumor, etc:

• Area 1 - 243 Detectives
  106 Violent, 73 Property, 20 midnight, 27 SVU, +/-17 Misc
• Area 2 - 198 Detectives
  88 Violent, 51 Property, 18 midnight, 24 SVU, +/-17 Misc
• Area 3 - 159 Detectives
  51 Violent, 51 Property, 18 midnight, 22 SVU, +/-17 Misc
• Area 4 - 188 Detectives
  91 Violent, 42 Property, 18 midnight, 20 SVU, +/-17 Misc
• Area 5 -137 Detectives
  47 Violent, 37 Property, 16 midnight, 20 SVU, +/-17 Misc

No one is sure how the process is going to work. Our comment sections have a bunch of different versions. It'll play out shortly and then the Grievances/Lawsuits can start.

One version has FOP signing off on screwing a few hundred detectives out of assignments, watches and furloughs. That could be the impetus to a wholesale decertification effort.

Director Larry Gavin

Evidently, this is the County goof at the jail who has "revamped" all the intake procedures, costing the CPD hundreds, if not thousands of hours (not to mention tens of thousands of dollars) by telling deputies at the jail to refuse prisoners who have current hospital release papers.

We're also told that none of these changes are in writing. There were some minor policy changes, but prisoners with clearances are supposed to be brought in front of a judge.

And doesn't the jail have it's very own hospital on the grounds? Cermak Hospital.

"Unexpectedly"

It was only unexpected if you're a moron, however:

• The latest story of the Big Fail known as bail reform comes from New York. There, 21-year-old MS-13 gang member Eusebio Jax-Mejia was arrested on January 1, then released two days ago -- only to be arrested the very same day for the very same crime.

If you follow the news with any sort of regularity, you'll recognize these stories out of New York:

• Gerod Woodberry was under arrest for his suspected involvement in no fewer than four bank robberies. Released under the new law, Woodberry -- you guessed it! -- (allegedly) robbed another bank the day after his release. He's still wanted by police, who will only have to release him again should they catch him again.  
• Jonathan Flores-Maldonado was killed by a repeat drunk driver, Jordan Randolph (allegedly). Randolph had been released without bail following his arrest for tampering with a court-mandated ignition interlock device. The device was supposed to prevent him from driving drunk, for which he'd already been convicted three times.

And that's just scraping the surface in New York. There are even more examples in California. Go read it all and wonder how long until this sort of behavior becomes as prevalent here in Crimesha's socialist/progressive paradise.

First Seat on the Bus

The ones who cooperate get better sentences:

• Former state Rep. Luis Arroyo appears to be preparing to plead guilty in his federal corruption case, a new court record indicates.
  
  Federal prosecutors filed a charging document Friday known as an information against Arroyo that repeated allegations first made against him in October. The filing is significant because an information typically means a defendant plans to plead guilty.
  
  If Arroyo does enter such a plea, it would be the first conviction secured against an elected official as a result of the feds’ multiple public corruption investigations that became known with the November 2018 raid of Ald. Edward M. Burke’s office.

So who gets the second seat? Because the sentencing starts getting measured in years rather than months at some point. And these are not young men by any stretch - who wants to die behind bars?

Recommendations Wanted

The author of one of the books we've enjoyed is looking for new suggestions:

• I am wondering if you could help me by putting this out on your blog. I am reviewing restaurants on Bob Sirott's radio show on WGN am 720 on Friday mornings. I'd like to focus on places that police officers like. If I could get recommendations from police officers, I will review the restaurant and mention the police officer who gave me the recommendation. Officers can send me a recommendation to beatcopsguide@gmail.com, that way they won't have to put their name in the comments.

(comments closed here)

011 Being 011

Busy evening with five shot, three of them 16 or younger:

• Three boys and two men were shot Thursday at a barbershop in East Garfield Park on the West Side, authorities said.
  
  Two people walked into the barbershop about 6:15 p.m. in the 200 block of North Pulaski Road, looked around and walked back out, Chicago police said. Then they fired shots into the shop from outside.
  
  An 11-year-old boy was hit in the back, abdomen and left arm, police said. Another boy, 16, was shot in the hip, while a third boy, 12, was struck in the knee.

Of course, if the commander of 011 wasn't utilizing cars for foot patrol on the blocks where he and his wife own buildings, perhaps they would be available to prevent shootings? Any reporters want to FOIA that info?

Kind of funny how Escamerit gets shitcanned for misusing Department personnel babysitting and not the guns he had in his locker - he was promoted in spite of it - and this guy swindles the Federal government HUD program as a PO, gets multiple "merit" promotions in spite of it, and then uses Department personnel to protect his real estate.

Beck Slaps Lemmer

This is one way to win some friends among the rank-and-file:

• [Personnel attending CompStat Thursday] enjoyed when Lemmer put up the swiping compliance report (for a district) and Beck ordered him to remove it immediately because police officers “are not factory workers!”

Does someone have the posters that 011 papered the walls and restrooms with when Lemmer was busy making that Hellhole even less desirable to work in? There was also a naked statue with captains bars glued to the testicles and placed outside his window so it was the first thing he saw looking outside.

Nice Church Pflakey

We're going to say the "message" isn't getting out:

• A man was shot and killed outside of St. Sabina Church just hours after a peace walk to address Chicago gun violence Wednesday night. Emoni Atomah, 23, was shot in the chest while standing in the parking lot across from the church at about 11:35 p.m, police said. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital, according to police.
  
  Just hours before the shooting, St. Sabina Church hosted a peace march in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and to remember Chicagoans killed by gun violence.
  
  "I'm going to be on a tirade until this person is caught, whoever did this," said Father Michael Pfleger. "This is a good kid."

Any bets if it's another of pfather pflakey's congregants?

Attention Desk Sergeants

Have you been having trouble getting prisoners over to County lately? Here's why:

• One of my bosses is a big pussy, who is attempting to impress his side piece girlfriend who also works in Receiving (she is a “merit” Lieutenant). The new thing he’s doing to flex and show off for his side piece is sending back dope sick junkies, who say they can’t make it to court and need medical treatment.
  
  This is in spite of your transport officers arriving with medical clearance from various hospitals. This has been going on for a couple weeks now. We were hoping it would die down. But it’s not as of now. Just a heads up, and apology from the line staff at the jail. It’s really embarrassing for us.

So someone on our end needs to notify the Chief Judge that prisoners aren't making bond hearings in a timely manner due to this piss-ant showing off for his knob-polisher. If the sheriff who contacted us would like to send us his name, we'll make sure it gets play here.

007 Restrooms Shut Down

Under previous administrations, numerous new police stations were built, and every single one of them has massive plumbing failures in short order:

This is just the latest in the "not having a pot to piss in" plaguing the newer stations.That is, if they aren't collapsing on the substandard concrete slabs they're being built on.

Long Delayed Reorganization

Let's see if Groot and Beck delay the announcement now:

• Looks like (from all accounts) Friday will be the day for the reorganization announcement. Whats old, will be new again
  
  Superintendent with direct reports from Deputy Superintendent of BIA (currently Chief of IAD) and General Counsel to the Superintendent.
  
  1st Deputy with direct reports from four Deputy Superintendents (Currently Chief of Patrol, OCD, D Unit and Organizational Development).
  
  Chiefs (currently a Deputy Chief position) will report to the Deputy Superintendents. There will be Chiefs in each Patrol Area and other Units including CAPS.
  
  All Deputy Chief positions will be eliminated including street bosses.

We have something even bigger, but looking for confirmation on the whole list. Might take a few days.

Just Get Out of Schools Already

"New" restrictions, but seriously, there's no reason for CPD to be in the schools:

• Chicago police officers posted at schools are no longer allowed to intervene in student discipline but will, at least for the time being, remain in more than 110 schools.
  
  Those are among the changes laid out in a $33 million agreement between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Police Department — the details of which have been newly released — that sets the ground-rules for a much maligned program that puts officers in school buildings.
  
  CPD cops called “school resource officers” have been in CPS schools for years, but concern over a school-to-prison pipeline that sees students arrested for in-school behavior has ratcheted up the intense public scrutiny on the program in recent years. A few notable incidents of excessive force have shined the spotlight even stronger in the past year.

The schools don't want us there. In fact, the myth of a "school-to-prison-pipeline" should have been the final straw. We can't even count the number of incidents of what the law would define as criminal behavior that are reclassified as hi-jinks or shenanigans that the school would rather handle with "in-school suspensions" or "restorative justice," none of which involve the police and none of which actually deter aggressive bullying criminal behavior.

Beck, get us out of the schools and back on the streets where police belong. Let CPS pay off-duty cops and sheriffs for security.

Confronting a Fake Number

Someone at the ChicagoContrarian website is asking the correct questions for once:

• Throughout history, mankind has witnessed falsification on both a small and grand scale. In the course of man’s existence, rarely has there not been time period in which some figure has come forth to claim, untruthfully, they are indeed the Messiah, predict the apocalypse, or advance crackpot conspiracy theories. In a claim a bit closer to home late last year and on a much smaller scale, Eddie Johnson, the former superintendent of the Chicago Police Department (CPD), held a press conference to announce officers had confiscated 10,000 guns from city streets through the end of November 2019.
  
  [...]
  
  To fully grasp the complexities surrounding the circumstances under which a weapon is removed from Chicago’s streets, it is crucial to understand the methodology under which the CPD classifies a weapon recovered. According to CPD procedure, a weapon seized from the street falls into one of three categories: (a) The result of an arrest of a suspect in possession of a firearm; (b) recovery by a sworn officer; or (c) what is referred to as a “turn in.” While countless firearms taken from the streets are the outcome of impeccable policework, it similarly must be taken into consideration some weapons are subject to the constant flux in laws enveloping legal gun ownership. Apart from this plain truth, officers state as many as half of the weapons the former superintendent claimed were recovered in 2019 came into possession of authorities by virtue of a court order as a condition of bail or bond, a revoked Firearm Owners Identification card (FOID), which requires owners to surrender a weapon, gun buybacks, which are held almost on a weekly basis, and conscientious residents randomly turning a firearm over at a local police district building.

And the question that any real reporters ought to be asking:

• How is Kim Foxx’s office responding to police requests for felony charges to gun offenses?  Though police are plainly completing their duties by recovering weapons from criminals, officers say Ms. Foxx is willfully neglecting to fulfill hers.

If we accept the premise that half of the 10,000 guns are removed from circulation via non-criminal proceedings - which we believe is a low estimate - then:

• where are the 5,000 felony charges for UUW that ought to be clogging the courts?
• what is the conviction rate?
• what is the recidivism rate?
• what is the "pled to misdemeanor" rate that drives the recidivism?

Silence from Crimesha's office.

019 OT Scandal?

Are Groot's overtime auditors going to claim their first scalps in 019?

Lots of rumors about the IG along with Auditing and Internal Control making special appearances.

Big Plans...

...for a guy who's halfway through his scheduled three month stint:

• Interim Chicago Police Supt. Charlie Beck vowed Monday to do a “complete review” of CPD’s structure, increase funding for street outreach workers and take citywide a program he called “beat cops on steroids” before handing the reins to his successor.
  
  During a luncheon address to the City Club of Chicago, Beck was also asked to weigh in on whether or not Chicago’s next superintendent should be an outsider or an insider.

Guess whose name popped up?

• “If it’s an outsider, it has to be an outsider that understands CPD. This is a very complicated organization,” Beck said.
  
  Beck noted he had “loaned” his former chief of staff Sean Malinowski to CPD for a year in the furor following the police shooting of Laquan McDonald. Malinowski, LAPD’s former chief of detectives, has since moved to Chicago and is among those applying for the superintendent’s job.

So have we just met the new superintendent?

In any event, some of the plans:

• A “complete review of the structure of CPD and the allotment of resources” in that structure.
  
  “By the time I leave, we’ll be on track to make sure that we have the right number of cops in the right spots to do the right thing. This is gonna build … effectiveness and trust,” Beck said. “I’m not willing to go into a large amount of detail on that right now. But, the time frame is very aggressive.”
  
  • Dramatically increase funding for “street outreach workers” who “have ties throughout the community and can address gang and gun violence in a way that no police officer can.”
  
  [...]
  
  • Taking citywide a program now confined to two police districts known as “district coordination officers.” Beck calls it “beat cop on steroids.” One police officer is literally designated as “chief of police for quality-of-life type crimes and community complaints” in every beat in Chicago.

"not willing to go into a large amount of detail" means no one has a plan yet. We've seen that one a dozen times in our careers.

He also agreed with the narrative of a "code of silence," even though a record number of officers have been fired or are in prison, so this must be the most incompetent "code" we've never seen. Maybe he meant amongst the clouted and the "merit" who seem to get away with all sorts of stuff, like un-inventoried guns, misuse of Department assets, Social Security fraud, test cheating, knob-jobs for promotions, shooting at autistic kids, etc.

FOP Endorses Pfannkuche

Not a surprise:

• The union representing Chicago police officers on Tuesday endorsed Republican Christopher Pfannkuche for Cook County state’s attorney.
  
  The Chicago Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, which represents rank-and-file Chicago police officers, backed Pfannkuche, who faces Pat O’Brien, a former Democratic Cook County Judge, on the Republican ballot in the March primary.

So O'Brien is obviously a plant - former democrat our ass.

A number of readers have pointed out that democrats control Cook County by a wide margin, so for the general election, Pfannkuche is starting in a massive hole. The best (and maybe only chance) to get rid of Crimesha is in the primary. That would entail a massive effort to educate CPD voters to pull a democratic primary ballot - not something we would suggest lightly - and vote for someone other than Crimesha.

It would take quite a few votes to pull this off, but harnessing the anger of the regular voters could produce exactly this desirable outcome and a better chance than in the general election. With Crimesha out, it would be a free-for-all and an election decided more on the issues.

What does everyone think?