From the comments:
- So I was at 26 and cal today. When I went to sign out, I handed my slip to the guy in the sign in room. He then studied my slip and proceeded to mark a tally on a sheet of paper. One tally was for cases that got continued and the other was for officers that did not testify. I asked him what was up with the tallies and he replied exactly like this "the superintendent is trying to figure out what exactly happens in this building. Just another way for him to cut overtime. I don't know how he's gonna do it, but he's trying to figure it out."
Hey superintendent, what goes on in that building is called court. This is part of the American justice system that involves criminal cases going to trial to determine whether or not someone will be convicted of a crime.
The idea factory running this department has no idea why officers who have good activity are still working. The only reason is overtime/court. There are no other incentives on this job anymore. A guy who works his but off makes the same per hour as a guy who does nothing. The only incentive to work, especially for older coppers is overtime. Without overtime I will never make another proactive arrest. When I was new on the job, I hustled cause I had something to prove. Now I do it for the extra cash. May as well just go work days and spend more time with the family.
We recall efforts being made in the past to charge the Cook County States Attorney's office for some or all of Chicago Police overtime when you are under subpoena, but then are dismissed without testifying.
This would seem to conflict with other efforts to cut back on Extension of Tour overtime when the Department is making officers and detectives hand off existing arrests and investigations to the oncoming watches, thereby increasing the number of officers who will be under subpoena once something hits trial.
But then again, what do we know?