CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - A number of Chicago aldermen and the families of fallen police officers are advocating for a package of ordinances designed to address issues that, they say, are causing officers to leave the department and, in some cases, take their own lives.
“Our city is in a crisis and our police department is broken,” said Ald. Silvana Tabares, wife of a police officer, outside City Hall Wednesday.
“This is personal,” she said.
She was joined by Ald. Anthony Napolitano and Ald. Matt O’Shea, among others. Napolitano is a former officer himself.
“They are being abused, they are being used and they are being disregarded and nobody is doing anything about it,” Napolitano said.
O’Shea said some are working 23 or 27 days in a row and they’re “running for the exits.”
“And for anybody out there that says they get plenty of time off, they get plenty of rest, I call bullshit. It’s not true, it’s not sustainable and it’s dangerous that we continue to put these men and women in harm’s way,” O’Shea exclaimed.
“We cannot continue with regular days off canceled. We cannot continue with twelve hour shifts,” O’Shea added.
He said they need to be with their families.
“They need to rest. They need to gather their thoughts and just be away from the job, from the utter horror that they witness each and every day,” said O’Shea.
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Ryan Clancy, the brother of CPD Officer Patsy Swank, who died by suicide, said the pressure of long days, cancelled days off, and lawlessness on the streets brought her to the breaking point. He said she did see counselors when she could.
“Lately, there was no time to speak to anyone, working long hours with canceled days off. When was she supposed to get help? This job is the most traumatizing of them all and we are taking away their time to process what they see, let alone everything going on in their own lives,” said Swank.
He’s very critical of the State’s Attorney because a man who beat his sister to the point she didn’t want her young son to see her, was walking free days later.
Julie Troglia is the widow of CPD officer Jeff Troglia, who died by suicide.
“10 a.m., gets a phone call, ‘I gotta be at work at 12,’ when (he was) probably just getting home at seven o’clock in the morning from a shift the night before. They’re constantly working,” Troglia said.
Some aldermen say that has to end.
They want public hearings into the mental health challenges police officers are facing amid short-staffing. And, among other changes, they want to limit the authority of the police department to cancel days off.
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