Chicago’s 19th police district, which includes the Wrigleyville and Boystown neighborhoods, is severely undermanned. Since March of 2012, the 19th district’s manpower strength has dropped about 27% (March 2013 data).
Some of the decline has been caused by the department’s failure to replace officers who’ve left the department or transferred to other districts. Others have been reassigned by the department to other districts and to units that patrol the entire North Side of the city.
One very serious consequence of the manpower crisis may shock you: There are times when the entire 19th district quite literally has no police officers available to handle emergency calls.
This happens on a fairly regular basis. In fact, it happens so often, the department has a name for those times when no cops are available. They call them RAPS, which stands for Radio Assignments Pending.
Weekend overnights are particularly bad times to be in need of the police. Unfortunately, since Wrigleyville and Boystown are nightlife districts, weekend nights are pretty popular times for street criminals to be on the job.
CWB began tracking 19th district RAPs on Sunday, June 23rd. Since then, we have confirmed four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen seventeen eighteen nineteen twenty many, many times when no officers were available in the 19th district. Those times are listed below.
Sunday, 23 June 2013 from 2:42AM to 3:03AM and from 4:50AM to at least 5:20AM
Sunday, 7 July 2013 from 5:25AM to 6:05AM (approximate end)
Monday, 8 July 2013 from 5:17AM to 5:55AM
Sunday, 14 July 2013 beginning at 4:53AM. Rap extended beyond 5:31AM.
Saturday, 27 July 2013 from 4:36AM until after 6:00AM.
Sunday, 4 August 2013 from 2:05AM until well past 6:00AM.
Saturday, 10 August 2013 starting at 5:29AM
Sunday, 11 August 2013 starting between midnight and 1:00AM
Monday, 12 August 2013, from 5:25AM to 6:10AM
Saturday, 17 August 2013, from 1:52AM for a loooooong time.
Sunday, 18 August 2013, from 3:36AM to 6:11AM
Saturday 24 August 2013, from 2:58AM to 6:32AM
Sunday 25 August 2013, from 12:34AM until 7:13AM
Sunday, 1 September 2013, from 3:47AM until 4:56AM
Sunday, 8 September 2013 from before 2:30AM until 5:51AM
Sunday 15 September 2013 from 12:15AM until 5:44AM
Sunday 22 September 2013 beginning at 12:54AM. End time unknown.
Saturday 28 September 2013 from 2:43AM to 6:18AM
Sunday 29 September 2013 from 4:43AM. End time unknown.
Saturday 5 October 2013 from 5:01AM to 6:42AM
Saturday 12 October 2013 from 5:06AM. End time unknown.
Friday 1 November 2013 from 2:49AM to 3:30AM
Sunday, November 3, 2013, from 1:40AM to 6:29AM
Tuesday, December 3, 2013, starting at 4:59AM. End time unknown.
Friday, December 6, 2013, from 3:35PM to 4:00PM
Sunday, December 8, 2013, from 5:43AM until after 7AM
Monday, December 9, 2013, from 2:09PM until 5:00PM
Sunday, December 15, 2013, starting at 5:12AM. End time unknown.
Sunday, December 22, 2013, starting at 1:17PM. End time unknown.
Saturday, December 28, 2013, from 2:33AM to 4:22AM
It’s possible that other RAPs were declared, but we simply did not learn of them.
