CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The Chicago Police Department added 99 new police officers to 11 districts across Chicago, with 16 in the city’s 3rd District in the Grand Crossing area. The district saw the largest decrease of crime compared to other districts, according to CPD’s district report released at the end of last year.
In a Jan. 5 press conference at the 3rd district’s headquarters announcing the new deployment, Superintendent Eddie Johnson lauded the work of his team to add many more officers to the department, a mission that he and Mayor Emanuel have worked toward since 2016.
Johnson said the city’s goal was to add 970 officers in 2016. Since then, it has exceeded that number and added 1,161 officers over a two-year period.
“Just for the record, I would not want that job for all the tea in China,” Johnson said about being mayor
That created a banter from Emanuel about passing the mayoral torch to Johnson, to which the crowd laughed and Johnson led with before getting serious with CPD stats and accomplishments over the last year.
Johnson said the 3rd district, which serves the communities of South Shore, Woodlawn, Park Manor and Grand Crossing, saw overall crime and murder decline from 2017. He noted it also saw a decrease of sexual assault, burglary, motor vehicle thefts and aggravated battery complaints.
Investment in man power, community partnerships, technology and training changes contributed to the betterment of communities, he said. In the last year, CPD required officers to take training in crisis intervention, de-escalation, critical thinking and more. He said by 2021, every officer will be required to 40 hours of in-house training.
The new officers will be sent out to North, South and West side neighborhoods. Some will go to District 22 in Morgan Park, who will get eight new officers and District 25 in Belmont Cragin will welcome five. Johnson ended his speech with a message to the new officers and the community.
“We have your back,” he said. “Working together, {with} CPD and the community is the only way we’re are going to make the city better.”
When it was Emanuel’s turn to speak, he brought back the mayoral joke to start off his address, saying Johnson spoke “like a true mayoral candidate,” to which a smiling Johnson shook his head in the background.
Emanuel touted Johnson’s leadership in overseeing the department and said adding new officers, increasing budgeting and trust in CPD would not have been possible without his changes and successes to the team and alderman who voted to invest more into the department.
“We are lucky to have Johnson,” Emanuel said.
He said that each month, CPD will add 100 new officers and build up to putting 13,500 new officers out in the field. He said this news and the work of CPD is increasing the safety of the neighborhoods, especially the 3rd District. He wants kids to have more opportunities and not feel limited by street violence after dark, remembering a curfew time when residents knew it was unsafe. It was called the street lights, the mayor said. Residents and officials attending the briefing nodded their heads at this remark.
“{We want} kids to hear the sound of laughter, not the sound of gunfire,” he said. “We are not there yet.”
“Eight years ago the CPD was woefully understaffed,” Sawyer said.
Since then, he said he has learned from the officers and leaders in the community and said the officers are a necessary helping hand. The increased officer presence helps them do their job, pass on information and give them time to be normal citizens like everyone else with more bodies on deck.
“They can go home and live life like all of us want to do,” he said.