By: Matt Rosenberg
CWB Chicago reported that late last Friday night a southside auto shop burglar was caught by employees, became violent, and got shot in the shoulder. It took more than two hours for police to show up. Three more from CWB, the stellar crime news site:
- A pregnant woman was robbed at knifepoint outside a southwest side laundromat. No police took the dispatcher’s immediate and ongoing call-outs until an hour later.
- 911 dispatchers took 15 minutes to muster police response to a public transit safety threat where an intruder had climbed into the operator’s cabin of a CTA train.
- Police took 40 minutes to respond to a caller who’d spotted a recent bank robber. By then the suspect had moved on, to rob another bank nearby.
Real life stories like this are being played out day after day in Chicago due to misallocation of Chicago’s police officers and failed political leadership. They’re just a few continuing examples of something Wirepoints reported earlier this year. More than 400,000 times in 2021 the Chicago Police Department could not respond to high-priority 911 calls because of personnel shortages during hours-long “backlog” periods. These calls were about assaults and batteries in progress, a person with a gun, shots fired, a person shot or stabbed, domestic batteries, and other high-level offenses. Backlog periods more than doubled from 2016 through 2021.
Chicago, we have a problem. Emergency police response is a crucial public service to taxpayers and it’s failing. City leaders must boost beat patrol strength. They must give police crucial political backing to really do their jobs, including the authoritative use of force when needed. Otherwise, too many high-priority 911 calls will remain in vain.
Police response times depend on overall department manpower, field patrol strength, and morale. All have been suffering. According to a City of Chicago Office of the Inspector General (OIG) overview dashboard, sworn CPD personnel (with a gun and badge) numbered 13,353 in January of 2019 but this month were at 11,681.
CPD officer corps and field strength have been shrinking
Another OIG dashboard on deployment of sworn CPD members by unit and month shows that the number of sworn officers assigned to one or another of the city’s 22 police districts – and thus available for regular patrol and 911 emergency response duties – has declined sharply.
- In Police District 2 (Wentworth) on the South Side, sworn officers assigned to regular duty went from 382 in January 2019 to 283 this month, a drop of 26 percent.
- The drop was 19 percent in both District 7 (Englewood) on the South Side and the 11th (Harrison) on the West Side over the same span.
- Patrol manpower was down 28 percent in the 18th (Near North) and 26 percent in the 19th (Townhall).
- Overall, sworn officers assigned to specific police districts, rather than to special or administrative units, dropped 18 percent citywide between the beginning of 2019 and this month.
911 response problem tied to deployment tug-of-war
That same “unit and month” deployment dashboard shows that of the current 11,681 sworn officers in CPD, just 6,184, or 53 percent, are actually assigned to specific police districts and available to serve on regular patrols which respond to 911 calls. The other 47 percent, or 5,497 sworn officers, are assigned to special or administrative units.
Some special units to which sworn officers are assigned are crucial: detective, forensic, and training units, among others. But a closer read of “sworn officer” allocation – detailed in the deployment dashboard above – raises questions. We’ll address that in more detail another time. But be clear: sworn officer re-allocation to patrol work is a pressing need. Some of that has occurred already, but not nearly enough.
Patrol force strength is further diluted by everyday operational requirements. Normally there are three daily police shifts of eight hours each. Of the 200 or 300 sworn officers currently assigned to regular police duty in each district, little more than one-third could be working on a normal eight-hour shift. However, each shift’s field staffing levels are further reduced by necessary days off, and injury and sick leave.
The city is fiddling with the 911 response data for political purposes
Meanwhile, as 911 responses continue to languish, the department’s spin artists are busy covering up for City Hall’s benefit. CWB reported on audio evidence that a high-ranking CPD administrator on a busy September weekend this year ordered backlogged high-level 911 calls involving no physical injury to be “coded out” – down-graded – to lower-priority status in order to justify no timely police response. That meant no police response given and no police reports taken for reported crimes like a burglary in progress, auto theft, or robbery.
So, presto: “less crime.” It also means fewer high-priority 911 calls are being counted as backlogged in 2022. How frequent is this practice? No one knows.
A pattern has emerged. Politics is behind both the administrative bloat and data manipulation, which takes many other forms, at CPD. The objective – under Police Superintendent David Brown and his boss, Mayor Lori Lightfoot – is to protect politicians but not citizens.
That’s inexcusable.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- More crimes, more weapons, few arrests: An Uber driver’s carjacking tale accents Chicago’s ongoing decay
- Drifting, drag racing and carjacking: Motorized mayhem overwhelms Chicago streets
- Cook County’s dismal crime situation offers a glimpse of Illinois under the SAFE-T Act
- SAFE-T Act targets cops for online transparency, but not criminals
- Five more things wrong with Illinois’ SAFE-T Act
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Considering a city’s first job is to provide safety for its denizens I must say Chicago gets very low marks. I guess they are too busy with gender ideology and critical race theory to bother with robbery, rape, and murder.
I believe even with the 11,681 current CPD officers Chicago still has 2nd highs # of cops per capita next to NYC of any big city? I believe Chicago used to have highest # of cops per capita? I recall on a Chicago Tonight /WTTW interview Joe Ferguson before he left office, he claimed that Chicago is only big city using fully sworn officers to perform administrative secretarial duties and monitor technology that all other cities are using non emergency personnel, with LA being the prime example. As a lifelong city resident (just like CPS, Streets & San, park dist,… Read more »
Police manpower was gutted during Rahm ‘s terms. And it has only gotten worse with the defund and woke movements.
October 1, 2022:
2021 Retirees: 676
2021 Resignations: 287
2022 Retirees: 602 (16% increase YTD)
2022 Resignations: 300 (estimated)
Annuitants: 14,657 (as of 8/31/22)
Active Member Contributors: 11,727
Active Members Tier 1: 6,479
Active Members Tier 2: 5,248
2022 New Hires: 481
This will only get worse come January 1st. The saf-t act will make even the suburbs look like Chicago. Thanks JB.
Moral in the police department is at all time low
Can’t keep up with the retirements with new recruits
It appears this problem has bottom worse since Lightfoot was elected
Problem is voters don’t really care to fix the problem
She’ll be elected again, just look at this past mid term election
This situation is shameful. We have leftist politicians failing the tax paying citizens at every turn, and all they can do is tell lies, make excuses and cover for the corruption and incompetence at City Hall…starting with that worthless Mayor Lightfoot and her minions. Thanks to their demonization of law enforcement and the resulting damage to morale and new recruitment, this nightmare gets worse by the day. And, there’s no way to “vote” our society out of this mess, because the same people who are destroying society are the ones running the corrupt, fraudulent election system.
It never ceases to amaze me just how low this city can get under the miserable excuse for leadership. People can blame political parties all they like but lets face it. Lightfoot is an asshole, plain and simple. She doesn’t have the biggest dick in the city as she claims. She’s the biggest ASSHOLE this city has ever had the displeasure of experiencing. Officers are held accountable for not doing their jobs and even more so if the do. This city needs real leadership in both the mayor’s office and in the Police. Brown is an ineffective sock puppet and… Read more »
One more time. What’s the definition of a fool?
But that’s “inexcusable”!
this must be what a majority of citizens want. I have no other explanation. They voted for the very people who are behind these horrific outcomes, which will only get when that insane new law takes effect. What did people think ‘fundamental transformation’ meant? And don’t forget that the people who voted for this are the same screeching about democracy going away. Well, this is a result of democracy.
It’s what a majority of voters want. Most people are, unfortunately, just peasants who are begging King Pritzker to fix the broken bridge, or charge less tax to mill their grain. They care less for the Game of Thrones their leaders play. It’s only the politically involved, which is 40% of registered voters this year, who even bothered, and in our state, 56% of them are Democrats. That’s the game they play and most people don’t play.
Chicago is my first love and it’s a shame to see what’s happening to the city that I as a third generation grew up in being destroyed. The police and the law abiding citizens deserve the respect of the politicians and we deserve to be safe. Please vote this woman out!!!!
It’s no secret that Chicago is a hole. This is what they want.
“When seconds count, the police are only minutes away”. In light of Matt Rosenberg’s latest article, that idiom is a quaint anachronism. From the data, the police may be light years away ….. if coming at all. The numbers alone tell a frightening tale for the citizens of Chicago and Cook County. Factor in the protracted attacks and the psychological impact of being beaten down and second guessed at every turn of their jobs, it is not a huge leap to wonder how there are any police left. With incoming calls of 1,100+ calls per day and no police available… Read more »
When seconds count the police don’t show up.
When seconds count, you had better be packing!
Startling statistics. Clearly not at the point of the public being fed up sufficiently to demand change. Will be intersting as this does not appear to be something that will improve on its own.
As a lifetime citizen of Chicago, I am appalled at these statistics. I am also appalled at the day to day changes I see in my beautiful city . It’s a slow degradation of non caring politicians to the citizenry. My neighbor across the street, a young once enthusiastic police officer. Is so demoralized! He has his days off cancelled cavalierly. There is no other organized group of workers treated this way. I can’t even imagine doing this to teachers, nurses, or any other city employee. These are the people that hold our line of civilization. They are held to… Read more »
That’s why most smart cops do nothing except take reports. Why do anything else? You outlined how things could sideways in a split second and your job is gone along with a multitude of others problems in your life from that split second that will be dissected a thousand times by people looking for heads. Going fetal is the way to go.
People voted for this War on Police. It makes all of us less safe, but those who voted for it care more about abortion on demand than public safety.
The obvious end result of disarming law abiding citizens while celebrating criminals, defunding and disparaging law enforcement is more crime, violence, murder and mayhem. Sadly this obvious logic escapes the liberals in charge. Matt Rosenberg does a great job of exposing the idiocy of left wing thought.
Still most people don’t know how bad it really is out there.
Well documented results of an undermanned, overworked, poorly deployed CPD. The Mayor and her appointed Superintendent offer window dressing interventions including another study while parts of Chicago virtually burn. Addressing will take a change in leadership from the top, but judging from yesterday’s local election outcomes, Lightfoot is sadly a shoe in for reelection next February or in the inevitable runoff.
GREAT ARTICLE MATT!! People want to live in safe neighborhoods. It is the job of the local government to provide safe neighborhoods for people. The lack of police on the street is not a new issue in Chicago. A 2010 article by the Chicago Reader “The Vanishing Beat Cop – thanks to an old budget trick Chicago has even few cops on the street than it appears” is about the same issue. In the article, Ben Joravsky, the author, noted that in 2010 Chicago budgeted for 7,143 beat cops, down from 8,000 in 2000. And now, Matt and Wirepoints has… Read more »
Another important read from
Matt Rosenberg that clearly lays out the devastating statistics and horrifying reality for Chicago’s citizens. Let’s hope the electorate does a better job next election at holding the
decision makers accountable – each and everyone who played a role in creating this untenable environment.
Note, after the number of shootings soared Halloween week, Mayor Lightfoot still made time for karaoke this week. Singing off-key; symbolic of her tone-death leadership.
I truly dont know how we can live here anymore. We fled the city but needed to flee the state. Just can’t anymore.
I am shocked Illinois voters were willing to re-elect Pritzker.
Excellent synopsis of the problems of policing in Chicago. But, the elections show that no one cares about these problems. The Democrats that created these problems (or their affiliates) were reelected. So clearly the people of Illinois WANT these problems or they would vote out them out so something could change. The last section of your article is critical… the solution appears to be redefining the problem as not a problem. This is increasingly an issue. It has been made worse by voters passing Amendment 1 – Collective Bargaining Rights, which will give the unions control over how government actually… Read more »
It seems voters in Illinois are more concerned and distracted with the right to dismember babies than focus on crime and taxes too for that matter. Dangerous times for children and adults here. The lucky ones have moved out. Vote for Paul Vallas for Mayor, he may be our only hope.
The City of Chicago hasn’t had competent policing since the last Daley administration. Whatever you say about Richard I and Richard II, the city worked, it was clean, and it was as safe as a petting zoo…at least in comparison with today’s standard. The utter incompetence of today’s Mayor, and police officials IS the problem. Surely some smart systems people would repair part of the problem…perhaps a two tier 911 system. Press 1 if you are in danger, Press 2 if your cat is in danger. But beyond that, the City needs to come up with a way to make… Read more »
Richard I and Richard II, the city worked, it was clean No, it was bad. I recently started looking up murder and crime stats and it was MUCH, MUCH worse under the first Daley and the second Daley. Byrne and Bilandic were not any better either. People simply misremember. I was too until I started reading the stats, looking up the news stories and then remembering, “Oh Yeah.” For example, the former Henrotin Hospital, in the Gold Coast was noted nationally for it’s ability to treat gunshot victims. This isn’t happening now as the crime rate is up but not… Read more »
If you’re comparing today, the 2020’s, to the 1990’s or 1970’s, you’ve already lost the crime argument. Chicago had over a million more people in 1970 than it does today. While Chicago has fewer shootings today than it did back during the 1990’s, when adjusted for population, the rates aren’t that much different. Factor in better life saving medical treatment and the murder rate would be far higher than it already is. Chicago also had some high rises with major concentrations of crime, Cabrini Greens and the Henry Horner homes, both very close to downtown. The understandable fear people have… Read more »
I was around, but can’t remember 300 juveniles caught in crossfire in the 80’s. Every week now, we hear of a toddler or child shot. There weren’t random carjackings daily, no people shot sitting in traffic. Criminal crowds weren’t taunting police, causing them police to retreat. It’s much worse now.
And meanwhile today the brain dead are celebrating another Pritzker win.
I asked early morning, what the hell is wrong with people?
Have some become so lazy they just believe the load of dung they’re feed and believe?
Do I buy a bullet proof vest or just get the tank I’ve had my eye on?
Thanks for your column. It’s sad we have reached this madness.
Another great fact-based crime coverage by Matt! Hopefully, Paul Vallas signs up with Matt’s coverage.
Chicago and Illinois are just hard to understand. Mayor Lightbrain and Heavyduty Pritzker??? Thus, the city and state are in dire straits and SAFE-T is not yet in effect.
Thanks for the comprehensive analysis.
A once great city continues its descent into chaos, while the Mayor sings karaoke. And the people keep re-electing politicians following the same failed policies.
It is the same old story, crime continues to rise and the political does what ever it can to deny it’s existence. Until the average persons gets vocal and also votes these fools out it will continue.
Yet further proof of our failed leadership. I haven’t seen any of this reported elsewhere. Thank you for shedding light on these important issues.
Chicago voters: hey, here’s a neat idea. Let’s all just keep voting like we always have. I’m sure things will get better really soon, right?
Who woulda thunk defunding the police would result in an increase of crime and longer response time?
And the politicians responsible for causing all of this mayhem have been reelected by the same people who have suffered rising crime and inflation, are suffering and will suffer more in the future. Democrats doing what they do best, destroying everything.
The only conclusion I can see to
Tuesdays voting is, the majority of Chicago residents must have criminal family members.
They can save on bail cash, and spend it on drugs.