| High hopes begin to fade |
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| Written by APB Staff |
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When the Mayor of Chicago asked how he could possibly justify giving his new police chief an annual salary of $300,000, the mayor said you have to spend big if you want the best. A year later, lots of folks are asking some tough questions about whether or not the “best” choice is providing value for dollars spent. Chicago homicides, shootings, and other violent crime are all up. Arrests, gun recoveries, and other hard indicators of police activity are all down. When Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis took the job and promised results, this isn’t exactly what city officials, community leaders, and the city’s cops had in mind. “He’s made mistakes. This is the residual effect of that. He’s got good intentions. But it’s hard to see anything positive about his reign,” Police Committee Chairman Isaac Carothers told the Chicago Sun Times in a recent interview. “When you change all the commanders at once and don’t give yourself a chance to learn from experienced people, that gives a jolt to the system. “Police officers have told me they don’t feel the enthusiasm they once had. “They’re doing their jobs. But nothing beyond that. They don’t have the confidence that he’s supporting them.” Weis says a turnaround is just around the corner. He says he believes he has a dedicated, hardworking force and that he has seen a shift recently. If you look at the numbers from December of 2008 and the middle of January 2009, there is cause for cautious optimism. Homicides are down 31 percent since Dec. 15 and shootings dropped slightly. Gun recoveries also increased slightly. It’s far from a trend, but Weis said it could be a sign that the massive command changes he made last year put the right people in the right places. “We know what to do, we know our domain, and we know our territory,’’ Weis told the Sun Times when asked for a response to the criticism. “2009 is going to be a year of results. “This is a year I have to deliver. From this day forward, people are going to have to perform.’’ That new level of performance can’t start quickly enough. The numbers from Weis’s former employer, the FBI, showed that homicides jumped 15 percent and shootings increased 17 percent in 2008. Shots-fired calls jumped 33 percent and gang disturbance calls went up 18 percent. At the same time, police made 12 percent fewer overall arrests and 15 percent fewer felony arrests. Police responses were down 21 percent for gang loitering and 38 percent for gang narcotics loitering, while 4 percent fewer guns were recovered. subscribeAdd this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites          Comments (2)
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