Station Security - NOT!

Once again:

• How about addressing what happened out here in 003 yesterday? No, it wasn't on the news because we can't have the Sheeple reminded of just how insecure some of our facilities are and how determined some of the savages are that we deal with daily.
  
  Brief synopsis: dude walks into the desk at 0900 hours, sucker punches an officer and then tries to disarm him. Other officers subdue the asshole, but not before two are injured (loose teeth, busted lip, possible broken thumb, etc.). Our illustrious CCSOA tried to decline the upgrade based on asshole being on "psych meds". We quickly pointed out that dude did the same thing at 004s desk in October 2008 and promise to override if necessary. (Reference CB #18568012 for yesterday's incident, CB # 17385628 for the '08 incident). Dude is charged accordingly...although he should have been put down like the dog that he is. 

Nice to see that J-Fled's station security survey is still bearing zero fruit and hasn't made a single officer safer by and measure.

And an interesting tidbit - the psycho who lit the house on fire in 010 the other night, killing a woman, her 4-year-old daughter and himself, was the same headcase who wandered into the 011th District a year or so ago with a rifle before being disarmed by the desk crew.  And still no additional security safeguards in place.

Wait....Rahm Lied?

Once again, the media behind the curve:

• Despite promises of staffing increases, the Chicago Police Department has fewer beat officers in patrol districts across the city than before Mayor Rahm Emanuel took office, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis of city data has found.
  
  Days after he was sworn into office last year, Emanuel announced the start of what he described as a major shift in how the police department assigns officers across the city. He promised to fulfill a campaign pledge by assigning 1,000 more cops to high-crime areas without reducing the police presence in other parts of the city.
  
  “We cannot beat crime without more officers on the beat,” the mayor said then.
  
  That was May 2011.
  
  But, as of Oct. 15, a total of 6,638 rank-and-file officers were assigned to police beats citywide, down from 6,746 beat cops at the start of 2011, according to the data obtained by the Sun-Times.
  

And why would that be?

• The reason is simple: For every newly hired officer assigned to a beat during the past two years, six other sworn members of the department have retired.
  
  And because about 1,200 retirements have sharply depleted the payroll, rank-and-file police staffing even in some high-crime areas where new officers were added last year is again declining, the Sun-Times found.

And that's not even accounting for the Units. Anyone seen the wait time to get an ET to process a job? Eight, ten, even twelve hours isn't out of the ordinary. The Crime Lab has ceased to exist for the most part. Detective attrition must have been horrific over the past 5-plus years they didn't make a class, and the 70 currently in the Academy? They are walking into a world of shit.

If you live in a "quiet" part of town, run the numbers for your midnight shifts. There is no police protection during the hours of darkness. Or the Airports? Some nights they are running a single car - one cop covering an airport the size of three or four suburbs.

But remember, crime is down. If the police don't show up, it never gets reported, therefore, it never happened.

Off Duty Carjacked

South side again:

• An off-duty Chicago Police officer was carjacked Monday night in the Calumet Heights neighborhood on the South Side, police said.
  
  The female officer was in the 9000 block of South Crandon about 9 p.m. when three men — one of them armed — confronted her and demanded her money, purse and SUV, police News Affairs [...] said.
  
  The three robbers took her purse and fled in her white 2012 Buick Enclave,...
  
  The 58-year-old officer was not injured and her weapon was not taken,...

We don't know what you think, but we're pretty sure McFailure's "obliteration" list is getting kind of long.  Maybe too much so - maybe we ought to start hiring people at some point that actually exceeds the rate of retirements.

Secure Station

Maybe someday we'll have stuff like this:

• A man killed Sunday in a shootout at a suburban Detroit police headquarters first tried to shoot an officer behind bulletproof glass before officers exchanged gunfire with him, police said.
  
  One police officer was wounded in the shootout in Southfield, a city of about 73,000 north of Detroit. The injured officer was in stable condition Sunday night with a single gunshot wound in the shoulder and expected to live.
  
  Police Chief Eric Hawkins said investigators were trying to figure out why the gunman carried out the attack. The 64-year-old man had no known grievance with police.
  

Thank goodness J-Fled got us those cheap security doors, but nothing for the lobbies.

An Interesting Article

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon policing:

• With the number of murders in Chicago so far this year already surpassing the total for all of 2011, why would the police make it a priority to track down a teenager wanted for only a misdemeanor?
  
  It was because Milton was on the police department’s “heat list” — part of a new anti-violence strategy pushed by Supt. Garry McCarthy to arrest fugitives who have been linked to people who have been killed.
  
  The effort springs from a Yale University sociologist’s finding that these “hot people” are far more likely, as a result of those social ties, to become a victim or perpetrator of deadly violence themselves.

Now usually, anything from Yale involving police work would be fodder for a couple of days worth of comedy.  But this statistic caught our eye:

• Citywide, Chicago’s murder rate is 14.5 per 100,000. But it jumps to 44.5 per 100,000 in the Harrison District on the West Side, one of the city’s highest-crime districts. And for “hot people” in that district, the murder rate jumps to 1,865 per 100,000, according to the police department.

Interesting if it bears out over time.  The article deals with one individual wanted on a misdemeanor charge who ended up serving 30 days.  Granted, that's 30 days he isn't a potential victim,  but does it actually do anything except put off his almost inevitable demise?

Like we said, interesting in the short term.  Long term, we see is that it shows what a bunch of liars there are out there saying everyone shot is an "innocent victim."

NYPD Officers Hit Hard

Hurricane Sandy managed to devastate huge swaths of the East Coast.  Some neighborhoods heavily populated by police families were leveled.  Throughout it all, a number of Officers have been working 12, 14 even 16-hour days, all the while knowing that they have no home to return to.  Families have been scattered across the state as they attempt to rebuild lives and put things together for their First Responder husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters.

The NYCPBA has a splash intro page on their website listing charitable sites dedicated to assisting NYPD and their families.

TheeRant also has a few posts up about assisting our East Coast brethren.

Check them out.

Suburban Cop Killer up for PArole

Question:

• We see the petitions at the desk and pass them around roll call whenever they come up.  Does Chicago FOP ever circulate petitions for Officers killed in the line of duty for our suburban brothers and sisters?  We're pretty sure we've seen some around at times, but is it a regular thing?

As the largest FOP organization in the state and second largest nationwide, one would hope that our voice could be heard to assist smaller Departments in making sure the criminals who killed their co-workers serve every minute of their sentences.

We received an e-mail today:

• As an avid reader of your blog, I noticed that you sometimes post about upcoming parole hearings for those who have killed police officers. I was wondering if you would be able to write a post about one that is a little closer to home for all of us.
  
  Patrolman Anthony Charles Raymond
  
  This was my aunt's brother, and since both offenders were sentenced (with the intention that they die in prison) she has been leading a crusade each time they have come up for parole to ensure that they aren't released. Fortunately one of the offenders died in prison in 2009, but the other is unfortunately still alive and once again up for parole. I've also submitted this hearing to ODMP for posting on their "no parole for cop killers" page.
  
  I've attached the cover letter and petition that she has drawn up, I (as well as my family and especially my aunt) would greatly appreciate if you would be able to create a post referencing this.
  
  I've also been in contact with Duke over at dukesblotter.com, and he was kind enough to write a post on this as well, just trying to drum up whatever support I can so that they can deny parole for this scumbag again.
  
  Thanks for your help and best regards,
  Pat Blair

Duke's Blotter has the petitions up on his site. We're hoping some interested parties can get these signed and forwarded to the Prisoner Review Board in a timely fashion.

Responsibility (UPDATE)

Big chase up north:

• At least one person was in custody in connection with an armed robbery following a pursuit by Chicago that began in one Northwest Side police district and ended in another Tuesday evening.

  The pursuit began after a robbery in the 6300 block of West Diversey Avenue Tuesday evening, and included at least one crash involving two police vehicles, said Chicago Police News Affairs [...].

  The chase began after 6 p.m. in the Grand Central District and ended a while later in the Jefferson Park District, police said.

Evidently, there was at least one termination order given, then countermanded by 1600X at least twice. This set off a lively discussion in our comment section, some of it flat out wrong. First up, if you've been involved in a pursuit lately, you'd notice a box at the bottom of the Pursuit Form for the exempt member re-authorizing the chase. Although rare, it has happened on occasions, the rare part being because a gold star is seldom close enough to make that sort of call on the fly. In this case, it appears 1600X was actually involved, so no problem there.

The only problem we see is the accident(s) during the chase. Any traffic crash is supposed to be an automatic termination. Period. There isn't much wiggle room in the order for that:

• GO03-03-01 III-C The continuation of a motor vehicle is prohibited whenever:
  
  1.a pursued vehicle or pursuing Department vehicle is involved in any traffic crash in which there is a probability of personal injury.

To continue pursuit following a crash is either incredibly ballsy or incredibly stupid. Maybe a little bit of both. That is where the debate should be. Because you and we all know, an XO is going to be subject to a very different form of discipline than a blue shirt who disregarded the termination order or a sergeant/lieutenant who failed to give it.

NOTE: This isn't second guessing. This is the pointing out that a directive directly applicable to the situation at hand is available. How the Department handles it is another matter completely.

UPDATE: Word is there were kids were in the car. Given the history of the offender, kidnapping was a distinct possibility. Regardless of personal feelings about the XO and her history, reauthorizing the pursuit seems to be the correct call. These are split-second decisions people and the XO carries the entirely of this one...at least on paper. In front of the Traffic Review Board is a different story.

PayFlex Change

From the comments:

• OT, SCC, but not sure how much people may be paying attention to things happening at the national level that affect us here in Chicago.
  
  Per IRS guidelines, and as a result of "healthcare reform," the amount that can be saved in your FSA/HSA (for CPD, that's Payflex) account is being reduced to $2500 per year as of January 1. Might make a difference to those who contribute more than that to cover expenses for a large family or for a family member who has a chronic illness.

Since this money was taken out pre-tax and there was no ceiling previously, this is a big deal if you participate in the program.

No Bail for Bangers

An interesting approach:

• Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy has found a new way to keep gang members off their street corners.

  Keep them locked up until they pay up.

  On July 17, the department stopped releasing gang members from police stations on no-cash bonds for misdemeanor arrests. And if they can’t make their often-low bond amount, they have to wait to go to court.

  That means sitting behind bars — sometimes at the Cook County Jail — for up to 48 hours at times.

We aren't sure how prevalent I-bonds are in other jurisdictions, but the complaint is a valid one that misdemeanor and MCC arrests often beat the officers out of the station once their prints clear. We can recall a few instances in our careers where we actually arrested some asshole twice in one night, usually after they returned to the scene of the original arrest to pick up where they left off.

If nothing else, making the arrestee pay out-of-pocket makes them more likely to appear in court to try to get even a portion of their cash back. If McCarthy want to really keep these goofs off the street, see if the Chief Judge will double or triple the bond amounts. Once they know they're going to be sitting in County for a few days unless they come up with $300, we might actually see some changes.

Maybe we could do our Doctoral Thesis on the Impact of Economic Disincentives Upon Criminal Behavior.

Harbinger of West Side Violence?

When the leader goes to jail, the underlings start jockeying for position - and people end up getting killed:

• A leader of the New Breeds street gang who authorities said ran a heroin drug market on the city's West Side for nearly a decade has been sentenced to 38 years in federal prison.

  Dana Bostic, 33, also known as "Bird" and "Mello," controlled a faction of the New Breeds that sold heroin in a 12-block area near Pulaski Road and Van Buren Street, federal prosecutors said today in a news release.

A thorough investigation resulting in multiple convictions and heavy prison time. Now hopefully, everyone in the gang sees that selling heroin is a dead end proposition and they all take up basket weaving or something just as harmless.

In the meantime, we imagine there will be a couple ambitious persons making life interesting on the west side.

Dispatch Change Coming?

When? They've been talking about this for a year. We've covered it time and again for years beyond that:

• Chicago has quietly embarked on a dramatic change in 911 dispatch to free police officers to respond to the most serious crimes, Police Supt. Garry McCarthy disclosed Thursday.

  McCarthy let the cat out of the bag while testifying before the City Council’s Committee on Public Safety on Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana.

  It happened when West Side Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) asked when Chicago was finally going to abandon an outdated dispatch policy that sends police officers to 70 percent of all 911 calls received, compared to 30 percent in other major cities.

  McCarthy replied that the change was already under way, with the goal of creating, what he called “beat integrity.” That means leaving police officers to patrol their assigned beats, instead of chasing their tails by running from one 911 call to another at the behest of dispatchers at the Office of Emergency Management and Communications.

Beat integrity? We did that. 1993. And no one left it alone. What else ya got?

• McCarthy said a more dramatic change is coming soon, when the Chicago Police Department determines “which jobs we’re not gonna respond to” anymore.

  “That’s a call that I’m going to make — and there’s going to be some wrankling about that,” he said.

  “We don’t need to respond to calls for service because, ‘My children are fighting over the remote control.’ We don’t need to respond to calls for service because, ‘My son won’t eat his dinner.’ Unfortunately, believe it or not, those are calls we actually respond to today.”

Ok, that's a step in the right direction. Can it be done?

• OEMC Executive Director Gary Schenkel has acknowledged that it won’t be easy to ween Chicagoans of the habit of dialing 911 at every turn. It will require a major public relations campaign to divert lower priority calls to 311 or convince crime victims to file their reports online.

File reports online? We sense a potential problem here. What types of reports? And if these are actual crimes, crimes where there is no danger to life or immediate danger to property (just discovered garage burglary, stolen bikes, etc), what are the chances that they'll be categorized off the radar and under-reported? Knowing Chicago, we'd say pretty good. And lower crime numbers will play into Rahm's hands of lower police manpower.

Party Bus Problem

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

New Initiative

Let's spend even more money to cover up the manpower shortage:

• Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy vowed Monday to make sure officers are positioned to prevent downtown attacks like the weekend beating of a Michigan man attending a furniture convention here.

  McCarthy also said the police department could have a “couple hundred” officers work overtime in neighborhoods throughout the city this summer to keep a lid on shootings, which spiraled upward in the first quarter of 2012.

  McCarthy said he knew of three downtown mob attacks over the weekend, including the Michigan man jumped on North State; a couple robbed on the CTA Red Line, and a man beaten in the Gold Coast area.

NBC also covers this:

• Chicago police on Monday outlined a new crime-fighting initiative.
  
  Officers who are regularly making arrests and writing tickets will be able to get more time on the street and overtime pay, according to a memo released by the Fraternal Order of Police.
  
  The move comes after a particularly violent weekend in Chicago, with at least eight dead and more than 40 injured in shootings throughout the city and a string of wilding incidents in the downtown area.
  
  The "Violence Reduction Overtime Initiative" begins Thursday, and officers will be able to work Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays on their regularly-scheduled days off and scheduled furlough days.

Evidently, you sign up, you report to 61st and Racine, they deploy you. Anywhere.

Our dream would be to see everyone turn it down until there's a firm commitment to hire officers. That won't happen because (A) everyone needs a bit of money in these troubled times and (B) there's already a class of 200 on tap to be announced in the next week or three as a new part of Rahm's "strategy."

Finally, a Retiree List

Got the FOP Newsletter in the mail today and guess what appears, finally, after an extensive hiatus? A retiree list. And guess the totals on the page-and-a-half spread?

• September 2011 -1 forgotten retiree
• November 2011 - 53 retirees
• December 2011 - 18 retirees
• January 2012 - 66 retirees
• February 2012 - 38 retirees

If our math isn't off, that's 176 retirees and doesn't even cover the March, April and May numbers.

We aren't going to criticize the FOP for not having a retiree list for over 9 months - they've been busy with contract prep stuff, NATO grievances and the like. But we're going to gently suggest that these numbers would have, and still might, make a brilliant accompaniment to the billboard campaign to "Hire More Police."

Kass Article

Kass points out that all glory is fleeting:

• How long will Chicago police float on their official sea of love?

  For the last couple of days, Chicagoans have sung their praises, the people and the big shots too, saying the police did a great job handling the protesters during the NATO summit.

  They did do a remarkable job. The cops I spoke with didn't like everything about what happened. They weren't exactly crazy about the protester with the fishing pole and the doughnut as bait. But in the end, who doesn't like being recognized for a job well done?

  If there's one group that knows Chicago isn't Happy Land, it is the police. They understand the ancient law applied by emperors to their guards and by mayors to their cops: The hand that pets you now can just as easily haul off and crack you in the mouth.

  When City Hall is done basking in the reflected glory of a relatively violence-free NATO summit, the cops who made sure the city wasn't embarrassed most likely will be repaid. And not with candy and nuts. Labor negotiations will begin, and police worry that their paychecks will be squeezed and their pensions cut.

We can't think of any way to leverage the praise and thanks heaped upon the Department into something that leads to a fair shake at the bargaining table. All Rahm has to do is delay a few meetings as in years past and the collective memory of the public will fade - the summer body count rises, the economy continues to stutter, gas prices fluctuate, the November elections approach, and like-it-or-not, someone will do something stupid.

It may take a relatively long time, like the 9/11 afterglow where everyone loved the police and fire departments, but it will come. Rest assured.

Breaking News (UPDATED)

(Post moved from 6:04 PM Thursday, 17 May)

Channel 7 just broadcast a bunch of whiny Occupy people demanding the release of some protestors who were arrested last night in Bridgeport. They are claiming peaceful protestors were detained and a building searched without a warrant.

What they aren't saying (and neither is Channel 7) is that these "peaceful protestors" were caught in the act filling bottles with gasoline and sitting with a bizarre assortment of weapons ranging from crossbows to throwing stars.

For those who claim "bullshit" or attempt to defend these assholes, we don't have third hand knowledge or second hand knowledge of this event. We have direct knowledge and this mayor, this superintendent and mouthpieces like Healey can go fuck themselves for keeping this from the public, encouraging the public to bring families downtown into this crap, and for sending police officers into this type of atmosphere in "soft clothes" and under-trained.

By the way, has anyone read anything about protestors throwing bags of excrement at the Board of Trade yesterday? That happened, too, and we can't find any report of it. And the additional bags of excrement at Daley Plaza today? Not a whisper in the media. Curious, isn't it?

UPDATE: To all you ignorant defenders of the rabble, ask yourself one question:

• Why would these assholes come all the way from Vermont to brew beer? We don't have dozens of microbreweries here? They don't have dozens of microbreweries there? And to brew a decent batch of beer, unlike the mass produced swill, you need more than a NATO weekend to accomplish it.

Keep dreaming. Even we recognize gasoline.

Tetanus Shots

Someone in the comment sections wondered if it was disturbing that CFD were all given tetanus shots prior to the NATO summit, while CPD wasn't even offered the option to accept or decline a shot.

In light of the reports of excrement bags making an appearance around downtown, it's a lot more disturbing that it was two days ago. Updates on the hepatitis shots we got years ago probably should have been offered, too.

More Suspicious Objects

Looks like more "lost luggage" turned up in 015 and 011 this week. And still turning up downtown semi-regularly. A cheap and efficient way to disrupt operations without maiming, harming or killing everyone. It's hard to justify stopping and arresting someone with an empty suitcase. And it's not like we can ignore it once its been placed - maybe littering if you see them.

Continue being careful.

"Suspicious Packages"

The Department shut down river traffic after finding "unattended luggage."

Word has reached us about other "luggage" being located near so-called "critical infrastructure." So far it just seems like empty boxes, but we're tracking half-a dozen reports. Anyone have any info?

And remember, let the Bomb guys tell you it's safe before you go near it. Those guys are going top be busy as hell this weekend.