By: Matt Rosenberg
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s recent campaign ad claims “she’s put more police on the streets.” But the city’s own data shows that claim is simply not true. The number of beat cops has declined.
Sworn police officers assigned to the city’s 22 police districts for regular patrol duties are down 19 percent since Lightfoot took office in April of 2019. That’s according to updated February 2023 data from the city’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) dashboard on sworn police officer allocation by unit.
The latest OIG data shows just 6,202 sworn officers are assigned directly to the different districts, down 1,458 officers compared to April 2019.
Twenty of the city’s 22 police districts have suffered a loss in assigned sworn officers, while 12 of them are down 20 percent or more.
The decreases in patrol manpower are especially worrisome in traditional crime hotspots like the 11th District including Garfield Park, where sworn officers assigned are down 22 percent from April 2019, or the 2nd including Bronzeville and Oakland, where sworn cops number 29 percent fewer.
But officer manpower is also down sharply in other districts once considered far safer than today as vehicle thefts, carjackings and armed robberies proliferate citywide. These include the 19th, or Lakeview, where officers are 24 percent fewer – and the 24th, or Rogers Park, where they’re down 22 percent.
In the 1st District, sworn officers are down 25 percent. The 1st covers downtown south of the Chicago River and the Near South Side. The city’s year-end 2022 CompStat report shows the 1st suffered a 42 percent jump in major crimes compared to 2019. Shooting incidents climbed 231 percent, motor vehicle thefts 334 percent, and murders were up more than six-fold from 3 in 2019 to 20 last year.
Citywide, reported major crimes shot up 41 percent in 2022 for Chicago over the year prior and 33 percent compared to 2019. Jumping by especially large percentages from 2019 were motor vehicle thefts, thefts, carjackings, murders, and shooting incidents.
Not on patrol
Only 53 percent of Chicago’s 11,700 “sworn” officers – the ones with guns and badges as opposed to civilian employees – are assigned to districts. The remainder are assigned to a broad array of special units. That includes 65 officers who were assigned to Lightfoot’s personal security detail as of last March; another 20 serve the mayor separately in a bodyguard unit.
That 53 percent is low compared to other city police departments. Typically about two-thirds of sworn police officers are deployed to patrol work, according to a survey of 62 police agencies by the Center For Public Safety Management. (p. 10).
It’s not just that Chicago is short on patrol officers. The department’s share of civilian employees, who could free up sworn cops from administrative jobs, is low compared to other city police departments.
The sworn-to-civilian employee ratio at CPD as of last July was 13.8 to 1 versus a national average of 3.5 to 1, according to a July 2022 analysis from the Civic Federation, a Chicago policy nonprofit.
The imbalance means Chicago has some sworn officers doing work that civilians could do. Some of the department’s non-patrol units, including those housing working detectives, officer training, and internal investigations, must be staffed by sworn officers. But many other positions filled by officers now could be handled by civilian hires.
Unspoken is that many street-beat cops are looking for a way out, short of resigning. And thanks to poor management practices, they’ve got one. Under Lightfoot and her embattled police Chief David Brown, a much-criticized CPD promotions policy, known popularly within the ranks as ‘friends and family,” allows officers to be promoted to off-the-street duties – often desk-bound – to escape the pressure cooker of beat patrols.
Formally the program is called “merit promotions,” but as WGN-TV reported, it is actually based on clout, connections, and racial quotas in direct rejection of merit-based criteria like promotion test scores. The misnamed program had been banished but was reinstated under Lightfoot and Brown. WGN noted that in a Justice Department probe of the department, “Officers often told federal investigators that merit promotions were viewed as a reward for cronyism, rather than a recognition of excellence.”
Sadly, Chicago Police can hardly be blamed for seeking out special units away from the frustrations and pressures of regular district beat patrols. Why? Foot and car chases are effectively banned, days off sometimes revoked, and 12-hour shifts sometimes replace 8-hour shifts. Then there’s the ongoing vilification from elected officials and activists.
The effects are felt all too greatly at the district level. The problem of insufficient beat cops in patrol cars was especially acute in 2021 when more than 400,000 times Chicago Police had no officers available to respond in a timely manner to high-priority 911 calls.
This continued into 2022 as supervisors urged dispatchers to “code down” some calls to lower priority levels when patrol units were available to respond. The problem has affected minority communities in particular.
Chicago seems to have everything backwards. The city’s own data clearly shows reported major crimes rising in 2022, from both 2021 and 2019.
Add to that the now nearly two-thirds of residents identified through a recent survey as feeling not safe on the city’s streets. It all means that more cops, not fewer, are needed in local police districts.
But, rubbing salt into the open wound, city leaders have failed to re-balance the deployment of sworn officers and end the insider-y promotion scheme.
These would be the first steps of several needed to improve the effectiveness of a badly mismanaged police department.
Read more from Wirepoints:
Hopefully, all media will get the message, in Illinois, too.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation property taxes, why lawmakers don’t want to touch the tax’s cost drivers, just how much Illinoisans’ tax burden has grown over the decades, why Gov. Pritzker failed to meet his promise to reform property taxes, and more.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the free speech controversy brewing in Wilmette due to the city’s refusal to fly a religious freedom flag, the city’s left-wing excesses and the growing culture war, the latest money spent on the illegal immigrant crisis, and more.
Weekly crime statistics from the Chicago Police Department: Report through 4/14/2024.
Sorry for taking so long to comment, but I’m glad I did because just recently I read about how many ex-Chicago police officers have taken positions in Florida where they feel substantially more welcomed and supported. The lack of police officers has many factors, including a city, county and state government that values criminals over law enforcement. In addition, police officers must live in the city, and there are fewer and fewer safe neighborhoods. I’ve been told that many people don’t even feel safe walking on north Michigan Avenue anymore. As long as Chicago continues to vote Democrat, I don’t… Read more »
Numbers in the the department seems to have been on a steady decline since 2000. But she is, with out a doubt, the most destructive mayor every..
As if Lightfoot would, or could, ever do anything constructive or effect positive changes in the running of the City. Her entire administration has been focused on business as usual, while doubling down on her mayoral failures.
I pray that the citizens of Chicago rid themselves of Lightfoot in the upcoming election.
The legacy media has stopped reporting on 90% of the issues facing crime in Chicago and the poor leadership of the mayor and Superintendent Brown. I had also read three years ago that thousands of police officers were making $250K plus per year, and it’s not because they are making that as base pay, but more than $150K plus was coming from overtime. The next mayor will have a huge mess on his/her hands to clean up.
Lori Lightfoot has a detail made up of 65 police officers??? That is DOUBLE THE TOTAL NUMBER of sworn officers for our town of 9,000 residents and plus the 75,000+ in the village during the day (shopping, dining, working, etc.)
It’s a disaster happening right before our eyes. And, we stand there and watch. Foxx, Evans, and Preckwinkle all won their recent elections handily. This mayoral election might see a 40% turnout. The ignorance of Chicago voters will prevail. The list of candidates, with the exception of Vallas, is a ticket to just keep this madness going. Let the CTU win this one, and kiss it all goodbye.
So a politician lies in an effort to pull the wool over the eyes of the voters and get elected. BUT a journalist digs into the FACTS and writes about the truth. “Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free”. Cops on the street is also an issue out in Glen Ellyn. I pushed against the building of a new $15,000,000 police department, where there is plenty of comfortable room for police to sit and visit with each other. It replaced their station that had been located in the Village Hall, a bit old and cramped,… Read more »
Sad that derisive opinions of police work and what it entails is not only rampant in the dark corners of the city, but is here in the suburbs, too. May I respectfully inquire as to your bona fides for commenting on the efficiency and value to the police department and the public regarding old police station vs. new? We’d be better able to assess the validity of your comment if we could understand how you determine what the officers are doing if they are in the building vs. on the street. Good police work is a balance, dictated by the… Read more »
the whole game of NWO types like Lightfoot is to take ALL control away from local communities and give it to the state. By allowing violent criminals to run loose; indeed even encourage their criminality by lowering penalties they are creating an atmosphere of FEAR. This can be exploited. Every statist entity whether it be fascist or their unwanted stepchild communism uses fear to cow the populace. This is NO different. Their goal is to have the people get so fed up with inept local policing they will demand protection which will also curtail their freedoms. This is the insidiousness… Read more »
The vilification of law enforcement and the downward trend in funding this essential public service — both of which have become hallmarks of the progressive left — is having a catastrophic impact on recruiting and retention of these noble public servants. Rosenberg has done a masterful job in “connecting the dots,” which puts the spotlight on the hyperbole and empty rhetoric coming from the mayor’s office, along with the horrendous impact on Chicago’s citizens.
Matt really seems to get it…at least from my perspective as a retired law enforcement officer and prosecutor (USDOJ). The formula isn’t difficult to understand, except for increasingly “progressive” politicians who deny the basic tenets of human behavior, including the fact that those with predatory instincts must either be deterred or removed and rehabilitated. Taking cops off the beat and failing to prosecute dangerous criminals is the collective failure of the Democratic Machine.
Thank you for your most excellent expose’. Democrats have made lying an art form. Don’t get me wrong, everybody is prone to lie but normal people feel shame for doing it. Democrats have made lying a strategy. After all, they do not believe in Objective Truth anymore, only “narratives.” So their lies become their ‘truth.’
Outstanding job Matt. Facts are clear.
Very well said, all my interactions with CPD were positive, they want to help people any way they can, and also catch the bad eggs, respect, man. Tough job!
CPD can’t do any street justice anymore. Too many cameras and scrutiny. Let them do their jobs. Take the bad guys off the street. My opinion.
Like it or not- it was very effective , and worked.
Great team Mark!
Matt, great article. Nothing but respect for CPD. Very tough job. I was a manager with Osco Drug in uptown in the 80’s and saw what they had to deal with on a daily basis. Thanks for telling it like it is.
When something as important as the deterioration of an organization like the Chicago Police Department is happening right before our eyes, when it is affecting truly EVERYONE in the city, one must take a step back and try to take in what must be the larger picture. What is really happening here? Who is actually benefitting/profiting from this scenario, and it’s sister scenario – the debacle in the Chicago Public Schools. When so much of the body politic is convinced through a whole array of actions and attitudes that their lot in life is reduced to the hand-outs they can… Read more »
Great points.
Another terrific piece that lays out fact after stubborn fact.
Thank You Matt, This intentional short staffing has only created an environment of extreme stress on officers and has contributed to the 60% higher rate of suicide than other departments.
No small fault lies with the media for not doing their jobs by doing YOUR type of research and calling LL on it. She was on Channel 9 tonight–I glanced so did not stop to hear and analyze.
But she is as terrible as the thugs blowing stop signs and stop lights. No regard for the truth or the law.
The worthless Mayor has a complete army of cops protecting her home.
LL has been delusional from Day 1. If she gets reelected, this city will go from nearly-doomed to a complete wasteland.
Lies, more lies, and damn lies are all anyone should understand come out of Lightfoot and “Tex”Browns mouths
And do you blame young people for not wanting to become a police officer? Those that can retire are leaving. The pool of replacements has shrunk to near nothing as the government shows time and again that they are reluctant to stand behind their police officers. It’s a dangerous and underpaid job that will not attract quality candidates as long as they are understaffed and not valued by their employer.
400,000 times in 2022 high priority 911 calls went unanswered in a timely meaningful way – I HAD TO READ THAT TWICE! I cannot even wrap my brain around that. When my home was burglarized after my wife and I came home from a Saturday night out, my suburban police department told me to get out of the house, wait outside, snd they were there within 4 minutes. Time for Chicagoans to demand new leadership. That starts Feb. 28th!
The turnout will be less than 40%. Ignorant voters win again.
Take something as basic as traffic enforcement. Excluding red light and speed cameras, drive at your own risk in Chicago. Aside of the more egregious car jackers who rob and steal with relative impunity, speeding and blowing through stop signs and to lesser extent lights is increasingly the norm. Why, because like their more violent lawbreaking cousins, such drivers know that the likelihood a police officer will be there to see let alone pursue for such violations is little to none.
Astonishing! The sworn-to-civilian employee ratio is 4 times the national average; whoa Nellie. Wow, in 2021 alone over 400,000 high-priority 911 calls were not responded to. Great and insightful article. It’s a tactic of the woke left to lie about something and then force you to accept it as fact. Lorrie the Lightfoot claims more police on the streets. Wouldn’t be a cop on the Southside or Westside beats. Same nonsense as the border is secure or that there exists more than two genders.
Come on Mayor, enough is enough. Let’s get more sworn officers on the streets, the people of Chicago deserve every effort!
Don, you are right on the point! That mean spirited hateful troll hasn’t uttered a word of truth since she was sworn in as chiraq’s top leader. She needs to start speaking the truth by actually putting more police officers on the street arresting criminals.
True, but if they are on the street and are hopelessly limited in what they can do to catch the miscreant, it becomes a vicious cycle of “what’s the point?” in the minds of many.
Interesting data. I live in 16 and I can tell you that it always been suffering from poor police coverage. Sometimes one or two squadrons in the whole district on a Friday or Saturday!! Oh and there’s at times one officer in each car, too!! I also lived in 25 and the same thing. Less police coverage! BUT never has our property taxes have dropped. Neither has the politicians salaries falter, either. Lightfoot is another delusional Democrat that keeps giving false numbers too to sound like she’s in touch with crime stats, all the while her 50-90 officers give her… Read more »
I wish politicians that lie could be sued. I wish they were forced in a court of law to provide evidence for the claims they make. Things might change quickly if that were the case.
Exactly!
Politicians should be FORCED to purchase air time for rebuttal of their political ads and their opponents should be allowed equal time to respond … right after their ad airs.
If it’s print materials, their opposition should be provided equal space to rebut.
Allowing these people to lie, lie, and lie some more doesn’t serve the public.
Also, no one asks what qualifies each of the candidates for the position. Most have NONE.
Interesting you say this! Remember Dakotah Earley, the man that was shot in LP last year, made quite a miraculous recovery in spite of being left for dead. He just brought suit against the illustrious mayor & David Brown, citing “extreme recklessness” and “deliberate indifference” by enforcing police policies limiting pursuits. There had been many prior opportunities to arrest his attacker, but these policies prevented that from happening, leaving the attacker at large. I am so jot a frivolous lawsuit person & I think we are, in general, an overly-litigious society – but I’m rooting for this young man all… Read more »
Local media outlets are equally to blame.
The latest non stop story over balloons and UFOS is typical. No more info on the origin or purpose of them. Yet, it is apparently worthy of continuous coverage.
Another distraction.
The local broadcast news in this town are complete jokes. They all should be ashamed of having the word “ news” on their trucks.
A reporter should drive by the public safety headquarters building at 35th & Michigan and look at the parking lot there some days. There’s more cars in that lot then there is patrol cars on the street at any given time.
Thanks for posting the real stats
She’s a typical politician which means a liar
I have a lot of friends who a on CPD, she doesn’t have there back plus numbers are way down
As the saying goes, “the more things change the more they stay the same.” That certainly seems to be the case here, for Matt writes about these myriad problems of crime, law-enforcement, societal breakdown in the Windy City, and so on, and so forth. Yet things get worse and worse and worse, and in a certain sense, stay the same. Why? Because when everything‘s going to hell in a handbasket, when chaos seems to rule everywhere, the overarching impression is that everything is lost. If everything is lost, and it doesn’t get better, it’s staying the same. Tragic.
Matt, Thanks for providing all the relevant numbers. Once again the citizens of Chicago suffer as the corruption comes to the surface. Until the attitude changes toward Chicago police officers changes it will get worse. More and more officers will retire and the ability to recruit replacements will become increasingly hard if not impossible.
When recruiting becomes impossible, they will implement the Memphis solution- gangbangers with badges.
Only the desperate need apply.
Why would anyone with other job skills, or opportunities apply to be an officer of the law, when lawlessness is accepted as normal?
I don’t even understand why she wants the job. She’s the worst mayor in the 50 years I’ve lived here. No Chicago mayor has ever presided over and encouraged through policy and rhetoric such lawlessness, criminal behavior and hatred towards cops and the citizens they protect. She’s arrogant. Mean. Undignified. Clueless. Incapable. And she lies, lies, lies. Just give it up and let someone who wants to actually improve things take the job. Lightfoot isn’t up for it.
During the Cold War, we expected Pravda, Izvestia, and TASS to provide cover for the USSR and their adventures both abroad and domestically. Carrying water for the Politburo was expected, moreover, required to be a member of the Soviet “press”. Famine due to seventy years of drought, invasions masked as helping “freedom” fighters, jailing vocal dissidents, outlawing religious activities, and the usual drivel emanating from the UN and its global allies and apologists were common place. Gallows humor was one of the exports to the west that gave an honest depiction of life in Moscow and the hinterlands. In observing… Read more »
What’s that Mark Twain line, Figures don’t lie, but liars do figure.”
Lori Lightfoot is trying to get re elected. This is not the time she does anything to make any improvements on the streets of Chicago. The worse things are the better chance she has of getting re elected. I know it doesn’t make any sense but it sure seems that way doesn’t it?
Absolutely shameful. Truth is not, just not in her. The Police Dept. has been neutered and at the worst possible time.
Someone needs to remind the mayor that the first role of government is to keep people from killing each other. Without that there is no need for government. Local armed militias would do a much better job at protecting their communities. It is so tragic that government does not seem to care that the citizens are being robbed and killed with no one to protect them.
The hardest part to accept is that these people don’t want to live like you do. They don’t share the same values as you. You may not want to live in a place that resembles South Africa or Venezuela or the shantytowns of Brazil. But they do. And they are OK with this. Because the see it as their own. They don’t see our government as their government. They see our government as their enemy, and they’d rather pay some criminal warlord or gang a protection fee tax, and have the right to pursue their own street justice against their… Read more »
Anyone residing in 2023 Chicago is a hard-core risk taker.
Is this a big problem? Yes. How does one not look at the bigger picture? The list of what police officers can’t do is ever growing. In the event they apprehend a perp that perp is then released in a matter of hours. How many stories do we hear and read about where a crime is committed and the perp had a record? So let’s say for giggles they wish to employ more police. With everything being dumbed down the requirements will become more lax. Then what? More dirty cops? More cops willing to not follow the law? How would… Read more »
Unless you’ve been carjacked, robbed, burglarized, raped or beaten, Chicago citizens don’t seem to care much about the mayor’s performance. She’s reigned over awful schools, deficit spending, rising pension debt, pervasive crime, poor city services, combative management, and on and on. Sure, they say they don’t feel safe, according to the survey mentioned by Matt. Will it be crime/safety that fires the mayor? Chicago voters, what will you do about it on February 28?
Chicago voters elected her once. They have re-elected Foxx and Taxwinkle, despite rising crime, attributable to their policies. How many voters have criminal relatives, apparently many?
You’d think that over the course of Lightfoot’s reign, we might have heard something sweet, kind, empathetic or comforting. And yet, I cannot recall a single ‘warm, sweet of empathetic sentence that emanated from that anti social Troll !
Never ,,,, over the course of seven decades has Chicago had a more combative, arrogant and abrasive Mayor. Who the hell is her constituency ? I’ve yet to hear one positve comment as to how she runs our city. Who the Hell is happy with her attitude, her policies or her acheivenents ?
Criminals.
Clearly you must be wrong, Matt. Mayor Lightfoot disagrees with your assessment and we know she is an honest and upstanding woman.
Dan, I am unable to detect whether or not you’re speaking what you think is the truth, or whether you are being ironic. Please fill me in.
Oh how I long for the Daley Days, George Dunn only one phone call away and no one could help if you …. if George couldn’t fix your problem. But those were the days when migration from the south was a ticket to good jobs in the big city, and god help you if you if you ‘crossed the line’. Neighborhoods like South Shore were safe and populated by successful professionals, homes were well kept and if you ‘did the crime, you did the time’. Bring back draconian sentening and Capitol Punishment ! Enough of this liberal-woke agenda. It Doesn’t… Read more »
The Chicago Way, as you described it, perhaps was effective, but it was riddled with corruption and cronyism. It was a fiefdom that benefited the connected at the expense of taxpayers. The Chicago Way is dead. It’s been replaced by urban terrorists know as the CTU. They won’t relinquish their power to anyone. Until they’re declawed, the mayor’s office goes through Local 1.
I will never long for the Daley days. Anyone who does doesn’t have a very good memory.
If you need protection pay the gangs for it. They are much, much better than the cops. Also cost much less and do a far better job. Cops do not enforce the laws, criminals run the streets of the Chitty. Chicago is not safe at any speed. Ken Griffen ran for his life and safety of a much better life in Miami. He will not be back.
Notice that Lightfoot lives in the 14th district and there is no loss of personnel. One of two districts with no changes or an increase. The 17th district is the neighboring police district directly adjacent to 14 and very close to Lightfoot’s home. A small increase in police staffing in 17. Coincidence?
Will Lori retain her sizable security team after the election? Toni should volunteer to have the Cc sheriffs provide security; they’d probably start by giving her a tune up.