- The Chicago Police Department will hire 500 police officers in 2013 and hold two police exams — one for new officers, the other for sergeants, aldermen were told Tuesday.Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to hire 125 officers-per-quarter was not enough to satisfy aldermen convinced Chicago needs at least 1,000 new officers to ease a manpower shortage they contend has hamstrung the city’s ability to stop a 25 percent surge in homicides and a nine percent increase in shootings.They were not appeased by the argument made by the mayor’s budget team that Chicago already has more police officers-per-capita than any other major city and that it’s the first time since 2006 that the city has hired enough officers to keep pace with retirements for two straight years.
Kept pace with hiring? What a bunch of crap. Do we have to go over the FOP Newswletters again counting retirees? Then pull up the personnel rosters and count hires by year? And point out (as an aldercreature did) that 1,400 vacancies were eliminated on paper with the stroke of a pen?