More Dwindling Manpower

Last week we posted about Manpower Dwindling and had the sheets from 2nd Watch in the 004 District. Something like nine officers total for one of the largest geographical Districts in the entire city.

This seems slightly worse:

• How many officers should be on patrol in a Chicago police district overnight? Let’s say it’s the Central (1st) District, which generally covers the area between the river, the lake, and 31st Street. Neighborhoods like the Loop and South Loop, the lakefront and parks, parts of Bronzeville, and the West Loop.

  60? 50? 30? How about nine? If you said nine, then you might be the person who crafted the Central District’s schedule for last Thursday night into Friday morning. Because that’s how many were on patrol.

  A source provided the staffing information, and it’s pretty bleak: One sergeant was on duty for the entire district. Four patrol cars, with two cops each, were on the streets. The district assigned a fifth car, a solo unit, to sit at the “migrant landing zone” all night, but that officer could not answer any calls.

We say "slightly worse" because:

• it's midnights - and midnights is always short staffed;
• and the population overnight in the 001 District is statistically small.

That being said, the under-staffing seems to have finally reached critical levels, and what CWB is reporting (and we have been warning about for years) might finally drag the "main stream media" into asking politicians what the Hell they've been doing.

Or not.

(we'll still post manpower watch sheets for especially egregious shortages - send em here)