Chopper Chasing?

After the Rolex store daylight robbery, a bunch of commentators said that the helicopter had followed the suspects back to Englewood before six were arrested.

Now we get this story a few days later:

• A black Chevy sedan led Chicago police on a chase throughout Chicago Tuesday evening.

  Chopper 7 was over the chase just after 5:30 p.m. It traveled from the Northwest Side to the West Side. Police cars did not appear to be in pursuit for the entire time.

Um, then that wouldn't (technically) be a chase, would it? 

But if they were followed, either by one of the helicopters or a drone (which we're told might be federal and based out of DuPage airport), then that would be a step up. No bad visuals of chases that go wrong, no cops injured, any crashes are directly attributable to the criminal.

This would actually be an intelligent move, a rare occurrence for certain. We just have a heard time seeing the helicopter up with any meaningful flight time given the maintenance issues they had a few months ago.

Manpower in 004?

Anyone know if this was true yesterday?

• in 004 we have 3 beats down, 411, 431 and 434 Tuesday. They don't want to give overtime. Unbelievable! 

In a case like this, with actual staffing falling that far short, you'd would think that overtime was a no-brainer.

Unfortunately, with the "no-brainers" actually being in charge of things, car are left unmanned and neighborhoods underserved. 

Bad Picks

This is Larritorious' command staff:

• So drunk Chief of Patrol JH gets fall down drunk at EPI during EP Fest and gets into a fist fight inside EPI with another PO!

• SCC you heard it here first. First Deputy garbage Tally is being forced out unsure of the reason. She is a total embarrassment. Karma yo-yo, karma.October at the latest. Legit. Total humiliation.

So how much control does Larry have? 

Obviously, not that much, so who keeps putting these morons in charge? 

It can't all be Conehead.

Again?

What is this Department hiring? And what is the Academy teaching?

• Any word on the goofball in area one PRT that attended a zoom call for traffic court shirtless? Apparently the judge was furious and reached out to numerous bosses over this display of unprofessionalism. BE THE CHANGE!

Do people not realize how Zoom works? Or how Court works....even virtual Court?

The Spotlight Goes On

The media picked up on the building calamity that (if it all goes south) will likely end a number of careers and drag a few politicians down with the ship:

• Carlos Baker, the Chicago police officer who shot and killed his partner Krystal Rivera during a foot pursuit earlier this year, allegedly attacked a female officer late Sunday at a bar in Wicker Park, the Chicago Sun-Times and Illinois Answers Project have learned.

  The officer who was injured in the attack filed a police report while she was being treated for a split lip at Rush University Medical Center, alleging that Baker and another woman beat her late Sunday at DSTRKT Bar & Grill, 1540 N. Milwaukee Ave.

  Baker and another woman approached the 29-year-old officer while she was waiting for a rideshare vehicle in the bar’s vestibule and pressured her to delete videos taken on her cellphone, according to police sources. During an argument over the videos, Baker and the woman allegedly “hit her in her facial area.”

  The injured officer escaped, with the help of others, and had a friend take her to Rush Hospital, where she got two stitches to close a cut on her swollen upper lip, sources said. An evidence technician documented the officer’s injuries at her home.

  She told investigators she wasn’t at the bar with Baker or the other woman, and didn’t identify herself as an officer during the attack, sources said. It’s not clear what’s on the videos.

We recognized more than a few quotes in the Slum Times coverage, because we also received the same information, to wit, the Case Report narrative. Anyone who has used the CLEAR system knows it only records in upper case, so you'll have to deal with it. All spelling and grammatical errors are not ours:

• VICTIM RELATED TO RO 'S THAT SHE WAS BATTERED. VICTIM RELATED TO R/O'S THAT SHE WAS LEAVING DSTRKT BAR AND GRILL (1540 RTH MILWAUKEE AVE) AND WAS WAITING OUTSIDE IN THE VESTIBULE FOR AN UBER. VICTIM RELATED THAT SHE AS THEN APPROACHED BY [O] BAKER, CARLOS (WHO SHE STATED WAS AN OFF DUTY CHICAGO POLICE OFFICER) ND HIS POSSIBLE GF [0] UNKNOWN 1, UNKNOWN 1 ABOUT A VIDEO/VIDEOS SHE TOOK WHILE SHE WAS IN THE BAR.
  CTIM RELATED THE OFFENDERS DEMANDED SHE DELETE THE VIDEOS THAT WERE TAKEN ON HER PHONE. VICTIM ND OFFENDERS THE GOT INTO A VERBAL ALTERCATION OVER THE VIDEOS WHICH THEN BECAME PHYSICAL WHEN OTH OFFENDERS BEGAN TO HIT HER IN HER FACIAL AREA. VICTIM RELATED SHE WAS ABLE TO ESCAPE THE )FFENDERS WITH THE HELP OF OTHER UNK INDIVIDUALS THAT WERE ON SCENE.. VICTIMS FRIEND, WHICH SHE VOULD LIKE TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS AT THIS TIME TRANSPORTED HER TO RUSH HOSPITAL FOR TREATMENT FOR ГНЕ INJURIES SHE SUFFERED IN HER FACIAL AREA. VICTIM RELATED TO R/O'S THAT SHE IS ALSO AN OFF DUTY PO FOR CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT AS WELL [assignment censored by SCC]. R/O'S ASKED THE VICTIM IF THE OFFENDER KNEW SHE WAS A OFF DUTY P.O. OR IF AT ANY POINT SHE RELATED SHE WAS A P.O. TO THE OFFENDERS IN WHICH SHE RESPONDED NO. R/O'S ASKED THE VICTIM IF SHE WAS THERE WITH THE OFFENDERS IN WHICH SHE REPLIED NO SHE WAS WITH HER OWN FRIENDS. R/O'S REQUESTED A SUPERVISOR TO THE SCENE DUE TO THE VICTIM BEING A OFF DUTY P.O. AND THE OFFENDER BEING AN OFF DUTY P.O. AS WELL. BEAT 1220 ARRIVED ON SCENE. VICTIM SUFFERED A LACERATION TO THE LEFT UPPER SIDE OF HER LIP WITH REQUIRED 2 STITCHES. VICTIMS LIP WAS SWOLLEN AND SHE RELATED SHE HAS PAIN IN THE FACIAL AREA BY HER NOSE. VICTIM WAS TREATED FOR HER INJURIES BY DR WEBER AND IS IN GOOD/STABLE CONDITION AND BEING RELEASED. DUE TO VICTIM BEING TREATED AND RELEASED NO E.T. WAS ORDERED AT THIS TIME. VICTIM RELATED SHE WOULD CALL FOR A E.T. WHEN SHE ARRIVED HOME. R/O'S ASKED VICTIM IF SHE WOULD LIKE FOR US TO KEEP OUR BWC OFF DUE TO BEING IN A HOSPITAL AND PATIENT PRIVACY IN WHICH SHE STATED IT WAS OK TO KEEP BWC OFF AT THIS TIME. VICTIM RELATED SHE NOTIFIED HER SGT [censored by SCC] OF THE INCIDENT ALREADY. VICTIM STATED SHE POSSIBLY LOST HER PNC DEBT CARD DURING THE ALTERCATION AS WELL. VIN GIVEN AND EXPLAINED. R/O'S ASKED OEMC IF THERE WERE ANY CALLS FOR A BATTERY OR DISTURBANCE AT 1540 N MILWAUKEE AVE BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 2230-2330 HRS ON 10AUG25 IN WHICH THEY RELATED THERE WERE NONE. CL #2025-4027 GENERATED FOR INCIDENT.

We would remind everyone that unauthorized viewing and distributing of CLEAR reports is punishable by suspension. Just ask anyone who looked at the Case Report involving the son of the 9.5 digit midget who averaged one-to-three days.

And after yesterday's comments,  "How could you do this?" we'll just say GTFOH with that bullshit:

• He and his companion are (allegedly) beating a woman in a bar over an alleged video taken in a public venue....and you're asking why we'd dare to warn people of this loose cannon? A loose cannon with an (alleged) suicidal threat in the past few weeks? We said maybe he isn't getting the assistance he needs, but maybe it's darker than that and someone needs to step up to stop it.

How many years has it been and we're still hearing the name Van Dyke whenever there's a question about a shooting? Or Abbate when someone gets a DUI and fights at a bar? Or Finnegan when  allegations of thefts pop up? 

Jeez, it's been thirty-two years since Burge was fired, he's been dead going on seven years, and we just saw his name last month in the papers.

Sigs are Done

Reimbursement may still be on the table for those taking the $95 "trade-in" option:

• Most of the roughly 1,450 Chicago police officers who carried Sig Sauer P320 handguns have replaced them following safety concerns raised this year about the weapon, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

  [...] On Monday, department spokesperson Maggie Huyhn said officers using the P320 were given a July 14 deadline to submit proof of buying a new approved weapon. The Chicago Police Department has about 11,600 sworn officers.  “More than 1,350 affected officers are now in compliance with the phase-out process, with about 100 members not in compliance,” said Huyhn, who declined to address the safety concerns about the P320.

  The department’s firearms training section had scheduled 20 days for those officers who owned P320s to meet with vendors to buy other department-approved guns and equipment, Huyhn said. “Additionally, CPD worked with Acme Sports, a regional Sig Sauer distributor, to secure a ‘trade-in’ option that allowed affected members to pay $95 to trade in their Sig Sauer P320 for another department-approved Sig Sauer model,” she said in a statement.

Those 100 "not in compliance" ought to get into compliance pretty quick, because we all know the City will refuse to indemnify you for actions unauthorized by Orders or policy, and this IS NOT the political atmosphere to tempt that fate.

We would also repeat our concerns about training. Firearms training is a significant chunk of Academy time, because you want to know your weapon well enough that handling it under duress is instinctual. Studies have shown you revert to training habits in an Officer-Involved-Shooting incident - both good habits and bad habits. It's not something you can switch out in a session or two or even ten. Habits take time to learn.

Careening Toward Disaster

A couple disturbing comments recently:

• Hey SCC, most recent news about C.B. Is that he’s over here at bars living his best life, taking shots, dancing on tables and getting into more fights with P.Os. I hope at this rate K.R’s family gets him fired or criminally charged. He’s been seen at Windy City smokeout, lollapalooza and now bars around the city. He’s an arrogant prick who has zero sympathy for what he did, yet hasn’t learned the meaning of laying low.
• Anyone hear about p.o [...] (same guy who killed [KR]) was at a bar and beat the tf out of a girl? Eye shut and multiple stitches.
•  SCC, turns out that the same officer who accidentally shot and killed his partner recently just got himself into some more shenanigans. Off duty incident that involves this idiot punching a fellow female officer at a club. Fellow female officer was treated at a local hospital for her injuries.

We weren't going to mention this, but a few weeks ago, there was an individual on a bridge over the river downtown. He was threatening to jump and a "barricade" incident was called. A Good Samaritan talked him off the bridge before he hurt himself and before SWAT arrived.

We were informed by a 100% reliable source that the individual who was on the bridge was the officer mentioned in the above comments. It sounds like a report wasn't generated, or if it was it's been hidden deeper than deep.

It's certainly sounds like he isn't getting the assistance he might need.

Or maybe he's lashing out being stuck in limbo for the foreseeable future. 

Or this is another example of the failure of the screening process.

Someone better find the f#$% out pretty damn quick. 

A suicide threat would usually result in the suspension of the FOID card by ISP and as a consequence, continued employment by the Department. Same thing with a Battery charge against another Officer.

This isn't just going to end badly. It's going to end in a mess so ugly we don't even want to think about it. 

Hey Larritorious

Rules are for all you little people, not the connected:

• ....the ivory tower sent out reminders of the smoking standards as well as the prescribed shoes as per the uniform standards. If you look at Uniform and Property U04-01 UNIFORM AND APPEARANCE STANDARDS you will look down to SECTION XXI SUBSECTION I LINE ITEM 12. (Members WILL NOT) wear iridescent, brightly colored, or nonconservative personal items (e.g., eyeglass/sunglass frames, pens, watches, etc.) while in uniform.
  
  So why on the police department Facebook page at a ceremony for interns is Deputy Chief Senora Ben wearing the same YELLOW glasses that have been worn in D.C. and other functions. That seems to be a violation of that section of the order pertaining to non conservative colored eyeglasses. So sergeants are expected to check shoes, bump cards, and other uniform infractions while there is a deputy chief in violation daily? This little shit is part of the problems with discipline, outside of promoting those that shouldn’t be promoted. I may sound salty but I’m not enforcing rules that aren’t enforced on those telling us to enforce the rules. It isn’t right.

Of course it isn't right. The "Rules" seem to exist only to hammer the unconnected or to pile on the punishments after some other violation is observed.

But good for the commenter refusing to enforce the bullshit that Larry and the command staff can't be bothered to enforce on themselves. 

Another Payroll Screw-Up

You know, there are professional companies that do payroll:

Of course, then some connected moron would have to lose their job, and you can't have that.

Yoyo Stripped of Control

About damn time someone took responsibility away from this waddling disaster (Tribune article behind a paywall):

• The second-in-command of the Chicago Police Department appears to have been stripped of virtually all of her duties related to the department’s daily operations, according to a new organizational chart sent Wednesday to CPD personnel.

  Yolanda Talley has overseen much of the department’s day-to-day operations since March 2025, when Supt. Larry Snelling promoted her to the role of first deputy more than a year into his tenure at the helm of CPD.

  Under the new order, released to department members in an administrative message, the first deputy’s office will supervise the department’s records division, which is staffed by civilians, its alternate response section, which handles non-emergency calls, its Office of Community Policing and the department’s detached services division, which liases with other public bodies like the Office of Emergency Management and Communication.

No word if her recent run in trying to park in a secured CFD parking lot was the final straw, but the list of offenses that should have disqualified her from even holding this position is extensive:

• Talley, a 30-year veteran of the department, was previously the head of the bureau of internal affairs. She is the first Black woman to serve as first deputy superintendent, reporting directly to Snelling. Prior to internal affairs, Talley was commander of the Austin District (15th) on the West Side.

  In February 2022, while Talley was still heading the bureau of internal affairs, her personal vehicle was involved in a narcotics arrest in the Harrison District (11th). The first deputy’s niece was driving the car, and a man in the passenger seat was seen by police throwing a package of heroin out the window before officers placed him under arrest. In body-worn camera footage previously obtained by the Tribune, Talley’s niece told responding officers, “Don’t even worry about it cause my auntie’s probably your boss.”

  Talley’s niece was not arrested, but the man later faced narcotics charges and ultimately was sentenced to the Illinois Department of Corrections. Former CPD Superintendent David Brown later said there was “no evidence of any misconduct by Chief Talley.”

That proximity to dope deliveries IN HER PERSONAL CAR alone should have kept her out of the job.

The PPP Loans, too. 

The fact that she got her car back without it being impounded should have brought her up on charges.

And the Tribune helpfully leaves out the fact that the "man in the passenger seat" ended up being the informant on the Anjenette Young search warrant that cost the city taxpayers millions in settlement money.

For all you people with little institutional knowledge of the CPD, here's a short manual:

• In the old days, the First Deputy ran the show. When we arrived, it was Townsend and he was connected enough that they waived the Mandatory Retirement at 63 requirement. That is the definition of power. After Townsend, we think it was John Thomas? We didn't really pay attention that much because we were busy having fun in those days. But we knew where the buck stopped.
• When Cline came in, he reversed the roles entirely. He wanted the headlines....and the power. So the First became a figurehead. Dana Starks was made First, but he had almost none of the power aside from promoting his people. Cline ran the show and sowed a lot of seeds of destruction. 
• When the mayors started appointing outsiders, the First regained a bunch of the previously held power because they were familiar with the players and the power structure.  J-Fledgar tried to upend it by shaking up exempts, but the First just moved all thirty of them around - no one got demoted. McCarthy was too busy screaming "CompStat!" and skirt chasing and drinking, so the First gathered more power. Beck froze everything in place, knowing he wasn't there for long, and the First was getting back Townsend-like powers.
• Then with Eddie "the Underwear Arsonist" Johnson, we were back to moron for a superintendent while the First and subordinate exempts actually "ran" things. Which brings us to today.

Unfortunately, the damage has been done along with the political class having far more influence on the Department that ever before. The second and third tier exempts had no idea how to run a department, chased away experienced people with brains and put the "friends and family promotional plan" on warp speed. There was no Townsend or Maurer waiting in the wings, just a couple pretenders.

Larritorious was a gym teacher who probably hasn't seen or signed an arrest report in fifteen years, let alone approved a TRR, and he was gifted how many promotions inside of 30 months? They wouldn't even allow him to pick a First for over a year, instead hanging onto a retiree with as much baggage as a small aircraft.

So Yoyo's fall from grace is certainly a good start. Demotion would be better.

Stop Already

Back in the day, you used to be able to access the blog on Department computers. So many people were doing it however, that Phil Cline had the eggheads ban it - it seems that so many people were reading and commenting that it directly affected work, and you can't have government employees being inefficient!

Someone should remind everyone that's doing their shopping online using Department computers, too:

We're assuming this is off-duty after working hours, because there isn't a Watch Operations Lieutenant in the city that would allow this clothing during work hours, right?

Equal Opportunity Misery

So, they're not only screwing Midnight Officers. Now - it's everyone:

• the dept just scheduled a bunch of 2nd watch officers for training at 1900 hours after they've been sticking it to 1st watch officers for a while now by scheduling them for training at 0600 and 0700 hours.

  When downtown is told there aren't 8 hours between the regular tour of duty and training, they just shrug and say "adjust the start time."

  Adjusting hours doesn't help for shit not to mention how it affects families. Police couples have to burn time just so one can attend training. Family first? My ass

  PS And I know a bunch of 3rd Watch just got assigned to training at 0700hrs

Morons, one and all.

Why so Much OT?

We aren't sure if Channel 7 understands what this program is actually showing:

• More than $3 million. That's how much police overtime cost taxpayers last month alone.

  You can see how much the city is spending on those extra hours as the Office of Inspector General has created the "Sworn CPD Member Overtime Summary Dashboard."

  It provides information such as the rank and title of the officer, the reason for the overtime and the police district.

  The inspector general says the police department's overtime spending is larger than the entire budgets of many other city departments.

And why would the overtime budget be so large? Well, there are 277 police Beats in Chicago. To adequately man those beats, you need (at a minimum) 

• two officers on First Watch
• one officer on Second Watch
• two officers on Third Watch 

Remember, we're talking minimums here. We'd all like to see two on each watch, but that isn't happening. So that's a total of 1,385 Officers working every day just to man the beat cars. And one third of the Districts are RDO on any given day with the current schedule, so the math kind of works out to 2,078 Officers actively working beat cars and still getting their RDOs. 

Then supervision for twenty-two Districts, three Sectors per District:

• 1 sergeant per sector (+1 for RDO coverage) on three watches
• 2 lieutenants per District on three watches
• 1 captain per District
• 1 commander per District

We're up to 440 white shirts just for the Districts (again, minimum). The real numbers with furlough reliefs and such are significantly higher, but still, we haven't even cracked 4,000 with those basic numbers. Adding in a single wagon per watch makes little difference.

Anyone know the current manpower numbers? It's in the neighborhood of 9,000, nearly double the basic numbers we just came up with....and they still can't man the 277 beat cars on a daily basis. 

You want to track down the OT expenditures, it's far past time to take a long hard look at where the manpower is hidden. We've been pointing it out for years:

• Commander offices with seven-to-ten people for what should be four spots maximum;
• Detective Areas with PO's answering phones instead of ::gasp:: detectives....or civilians;
• FTO's working at HQ where they'll never teach a recruit;
• there are FTO timekeepers - a spot that was civilian at one point; 
• Academy staff with eight Officers teaching an eight-hour course - one for each hour;
• Homan Square with entire units that exist only to push paper and never see the street;
• HQ....have you tried parking there in the past ten years?

Imagine the massive cost savings if police officers did actual police work in police districts. 

Nice Parking Lot Larry

It all just a joke now....trouble is, we don't hear the laughter:

• A crew of car thieves pulled off a doozy on Saturday morning by stealing a Jeep from the parking lot of Chicago Police Headquarters, smashing through the entrance gate, and making a clean getaway. It gets worse: The Jeep belonged to a retired Chicago cop — and his gun was inside the vehicle.

  According to a CPD document reviewed by CWBChicago, the crooks didn’t exactly sneak out. They plowed through the parking lot’s barrier arm to escape, and yet — somehow — no one reported the theft or property damage for over an hour. The lot and headquarters have a security patrol, or at least they’re supposed to, and questions were raised about why it took so long for the crime to be discovered.

  Unaware of the theft, officers on patrol spotted a black Jeep SRT and a Genesis SUV blowing red lights near Pershing and King Drive at 7:32 a.m., about three blocks from headquarters. The Jeep’s windows were shattered, and both vehicles tore off toward southbound Lake Shore Drive, officers said.

  Shortly after, someone at Jackson Park Golf Course called 911 to report five Black males in ski masks standing next to a Genesis SUV trying to steal a Jeep that had its windows busted out. But by the time police arrived, they were all gone. It wasn’t until 8:50 a.m. — well over an hour after the barrier was smashed — that someone realized the Jeep had been stolen from the police department’s own parking lot.

"...plowing through the [...] barrier arm" isn't that big a deal. If it isn't in the raised position, it's either aluminum or a painted one-by-four from Lowes....pretty much the flimsiest piece of lumber in existence. There are no tire spikes or anything stopping a car thief from leaving.

But who was manning the booth? Did they not notice someone "plowing through"? 

And cameras. Where were the cameras watching the lot and cars entering/leaving? CPD has cameras in the lockup and lobbies, in-car and body worn, on lampposts and in most intersections. Not one was reviewed in a timely manner after some people (or folks) hopped a waist high fence, broke a window and stole a car from what should be one of the more secure parking lots in the city?

And leaving a gun in the car? Retirees are allowed to carry. Even if they aren't supposed to carry into HQ, how much would it cost to install a lock box in the lobby? They had/have them at Federal Court.

A bunch of simple fixes along with prompt notifications of a crime taking place at HQ. But what's another hot car and another hot gun on the streets?

Stop Screwing First Watch

You know how you can tell house mouses and "merit" bosses never worked a midnight shift? Crap like this:

• (from an e-mailer) So once again the LMS system doesn’t account for 1st watch officers, many if not all of us are scheduled for Constitutional policing at 0700 during the first week in August! We were told by our watch secretary that this is the only time that the class is being offered! So why not schedule it when it’s available for all watches, our responsibilities to our families and loved ones don’t magically disappear because the lack of classes available to us! I was notified for this same class at 0700 a few weeks ago as a 1st watch officer but others on my watch has a 1100 start and a 1600 start!

Here's an idea since the Department has been over-staffing the instructor ranks for years now:

• since the "instructors" are three year wonders who don't want to work the streets, make THEM change shifts to accommodate the officers already on First Watch

Otherwise, you have midnight people, already on an unnatural shift that disrupts body clocks and experiencing wholesale sleep deprivation, having their work weeks completely derailed by a bunch of morons who don't understand the work day doesn't start at 0700 hours for almost a quarter of the Department - it's starts at 2200 hours the night before.

Rehashing Morale

It sucks and has sucked for a long time - not much new here:

• Former Chicago police officer Charles Walters says the department is in crisis due to what he calls a collapse in authority, surging crime and a lack of leadership from City Hall.

  Walters, who spent more than two decades with the Chicago Police Department in patrol, gang units and seven years undercover in narcotics, said the department’s challenges begin at the top.

  “The previous mayor (Lori Lightfoot) didn’t seem like they really had our back,” Walters told Chicago City Wire. “And this mayor (Brandon Johnson) really seems like he doesn’t have the back of the police. It starts there and trickles down to the superintendent. Then the fact that it took a lot of powers from us. We can’t do a lot of things we wanted to do, and the criminals know that.”

In our opinion, it's not that we couldn't do what we "wanted" to do - it was what we weren't permitted to do moving forward....like enforcing the Law. The rules of the job never bothered us, but the endless documentation did. 

And then, how the documentation was used was our biggest complaint. It wasn't use to prosecute law breakers, it was used to screw law enforcers to the point continued employment, financial well being and actual freedom was at stake. 

Once everyone saw that writing on the wall, disengagement became the only way forward in order to make it to the finish line, and Chicago citizens ended up paying a hefty price for electing "progressives" and other morons. 

But we made it to the finish line with minimal damage.

What in the Actual....

Rumor in the comment sections about stand-up Roll Calls being conducted all over Area 5 yesterday.

Anything to do with this?

 

Thanks to the dozen people who sent this one in. 

And thanks to each one who suggested this was the new policy to discourage foot pursuits. 

The Inspectors are looking for 5-11 pants and bump cards while commanders show up at Honors Funerals without proper insignia and this is going on? 

Rivera Family Not Happy

We can't say we blame them:

• An attorney for the family of Chicago Police Officer Krystal Rivera, who was fatally shot by her partner, [...], said Wednesday that [...] should have never been a police officer, given a serious complaint made against him during his probationary period, and the death of Rivera “should have never happened.”

  The lawyer, Antonio Romanucci, at a news conference on Wednesday called for an independent investigation of the shooting, saying the Chicago Police Department narrative “does not pass the smell test” and asked the department to publicly release [...]’s full disciplinary record as well as police body cam footage from that night that left the family with more questions than answers. “We have many questions that need to be answered. And we don’t yet trust the narrative that officer Rivera was shot and killed by her partner during a pursuit of suspects who never fired a shot,” he said.

  Romanucci wrote Chicago Police Department Supt. Larry Snelling a letter on Friday, requesting he ask the Illinois State Police to conduct an independent criminal investigation into the shooting and that he release video, audio and other evidence of the shooting. 

Illinois State Police investigating would be step in the right direction. We trust them a lot farther than we would COPA.

We can't really agree with the release of video, audio and evidence at this time however. There is still the potential for this to all end up in front of a judge and jury, and the Rules of Evidence cannot be compromised until such time as that result is ruled out. 

In the meantime, it's probably safe to assume that no one is seriously looking at our suggestions the other day regarding background checks, hiring practices and training. No one has the political will for everything that would be exposed.

Still a Dumb Idea

A rumor from the Academy. Not the one about no new hiring until November - that one was confirmed as true.

Someone reported that all the recruits have been put into either a Friday/Saturday or Sunday/Monday day off group. The reasoning being that (as in years past) they can use the recruits as manpower for parades and special events without paying them overtime.

If we recall correctly, recruits are only granted Time Due, not cash and it's all hour-for-hour, no time-and-one half.

We also seem to remember that these kids aren't in full uniform and aren't carrying cuffs, batons, OC, Tasers or (of course) guns. They are essentially just unarmed traffic aides that someone might mistake for the police because they'll be wearing those yellow vests that say "Police" on them.

We always thought this was a dumb idea, and given the state of society and the target drawn on police by the political class, it would seem to be a really dumb idea nowadays. 

And speaking of the "no new hiring" going on, who has the retirement numbers for the past month? Or for the year to date? Supposedly this will be the biggest retirement year for the past twenty years or more. 

No Tasers Issued?

Anyone know why the Department didn't issue Tasers to Cancelled Day Off officers deployed to PR Fest?

Was the Department going to take full responsibility (and attached liability) for sending Officers into the field without the required equipment, seeing as how they spent how many millions ensuring that EVERY SINGLE OFFICER had a Taser available for their shift....

AND

....the Inspection Division was fully on board with gigging every Officer who didn't have a Taser on their belt for the past number of years?