Thirty Chicago police officers will be part of a new undercover initiative targeting drug dealing by West Side gangs, city officials said Tuesday.
Speaking at a graduation ceremony for police recruits, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the initiative will employ a “buy-and-bust strategy” and is an example of the strategic policing approach he has advocated.
Undercover officers will work to arrest drug dealers, then uniformed officers will flood the area to prevent other drug dealers and gangs from claiming the territory, the Police Department said in a statement.
Officers and social service agencies will then saturate the neighborhoods “to clean them up, remove the drug trade and reduce the gun violence and reduce the homicide rate on the West Side,” Emanuel said.
The 30 undercover officers to be assigned to the initiative are among 200 officers who will be moved from desk jobs to street duty in an effort to curb violence, the department said.
Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy mentioned the initiative in his address to the 68 rookie police officers who took their oaths Tuesday at Navy Pier, saying it was “an example of the important work we do as police officers.”
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