Superintendent Eddie Johnson said at a news conference that he asked for additional officers and Emanuel “delivered.” The plan, which will start in January 2017, is to add 516 new officers, 92 field-training officers, 200 detectives, 112 sergeants and 50 lieutenants. The changes will increase the number of sworn officers from about 12,500 to about 13,500; Johnson said vacancies will be filled on top of the new hires.
“I’m confident that these added resources will make us better,” Johnson said. He also acknowledged CPD’s issues and said accountability is key. “We’ll train and mentor officers who make honest mistakes, but I will not tolerate intentional misconduct,” he said.
Johnson didn’t talk about financials for the force’s largest hiring effort in years, which is likely to carry a multimillion-dollar price tag due to required pensions and benefits. And Emanuel said only that Chicago “will have the resources” to pay for it.
“That is a question that remains unanswered,” Alderman Danny Solis said before the news conference, adding that Emanuel recently assured him the hiring can be done without raising taxes; the council approved new water and sewer tax increases earlier this month.
The plan marks a departure for Emanuel, who has relied on overtime — more than $100 million annually in recent years — to combat crime, arguing that it was an effective and less expensive way to combat crime than hiring more officers.
Whatever the cost of hiring 970 more officers, Solis, fellow Alderman Howard Brookins Jr., and others said, it certainly means the more than $100 million spent annually on overtime would fall.
Brookins, who has expressed concern about the effects increased overtime was having on officers, thinks the new hires may reduce stress among officers, which could in turn cut down on the number of citizen complaints and police misconduct lawsuits that the city has settled for tens of millions of dollars.
The Chicago police union didn’t immediately respond to The Associated Press’ request for comment.