- A downtown alderman floated the idea Wednesday that businesses should hire off-duty cops to conduct extra patrols on North Michigan Avenue where visitors last summer had to deal with some mob attacks.
Those patrols would serve as a preventive measure and take pressure off a department driving to drive down homicides and shootings elsewhere in the city, said Ald. Brendan Reilly.
"Business owners have expressed an interest in participating in that type of program with the interest being that you'd have additional coverage in these hospitality, tourism areas so that you're supplementing your regular beat cops there," said Reilly, 42nd.
Where to start with this one? The city is already hiring back between 300 and 500 cops most nights to do "violence reduction." That by itself shows were shorthanded in the extreme. So now, instead of the city paying OT, they seem to be trying to saddle it on businesses that already pay some of the highest property taxes in Chicago. These costs are then passed onto consumers who are already paying extra sales taxes in the touristy parts of town for food, shows, hotels, etc. Then people start (or continue) seeing that it's cheaper to go out to the 'burbs, Wisconsin, Michigan. And safer. And the downward spiral accelerates.