Top brass in the Chicago Police Department have ordered 50 cops to start reporting to work in local police districts instead of specialized units where they had been assigned, sometimes for years.
The memo from CPD’s First Dep. Supt. Eric Carter raised some eyebrows because so many officers are affected and because the move could be framed as “putting more cops on the street” just as the mayoral election is heating up.
Carter’s “Cancellation of Detail” memo went out late last week. Similar memos are standard practice, but they typically involve far fewer officers, a former CPD officer said. The affected cops started reporting to the districts on Sunday.
All of the cops listed in his memo will be going to districts that serve the north, northwest, and near west sides of the city.
Technically, the officers are being sent to work in districts where they are already assigned, but the department had “detailed” them to work elsewhere for various reasons. A source said that some of the officers had been “detailed out” of their assigned districts for more than five years.
Getting the biggest boost from Carter’s order is the Near West (12th) District, which patrols neighborhoods from Humboldt Park and Ukrainian Village to the West Loop and Pilsen. Twelve of the 50 cops will be going back to the district.
Three districts will be picking up nine cops each: Logan Square-based Shakespeare (14th) which also patrols Wicker Park and Bucktown, Jefferson Park (16th), and Albany Park (17th). The Town Hall (19th) District in Lakeview will gain seven cops, while Rogers Park (24th) is gaining two, and the Lincoln Square-based Lincoln (20th) District will pick up one.
But, the order also takes one officer each from Shakespeare and Town Hall and sends them elsewhere, so subtract one from those gains.
Of the 50 affected officers, four are leaving the “alternate response section.” That’s where officers take police reports over the phone while they cannot work the streets for reasons ranging from pregnancy to pending disciplinary matters.
The police districts that cover downtown, Central (1st), and Near North (18th), will both lose three officers in the deal as Carter sends on-loan cops back to their home districts. Other units losing three “detailed” officers include O’Hare Airport, internal affairs, and community policing.
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