When it rains, it pours. And last week, City Hall had a deluge of activity that should make law-abiding Chicagoans furious because their public safety is still being ignored by most city elected officials.
In one day, we saw an anti-cop civilian oversight chief confirmed, a mayor more concerned about stopping leaks to reporters over a growing scandal of police brass and more payouts of taxpayer money to settle lawsuits over fighting for the truth in court.
And the biggest development was Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s victory lap at a news conference over the recent arbitration decision regarding the city’s vaccine mandate for police officers. This ignores the fact that her actions are likely to lead to up to one-third of pension-eligible department members leaving.
They say there are many ways to skin a cat. Well, this proves there are many ways to “defund the police.” You don’t always have to remove dollars from a budget; you can also force senior officers off the job to recoup their salaries.
The continued erosion of our Police Department has been going on for years but has accelerated under the current administration. It is having a compound effect on the safety of our streets, and it needs to stop.
As members of the City Council, we are on the front lines of the public safety war being waged in our neighborhoods. We regularly talk with our police commanders and beat officers and attend neighborhood watch and Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS) meetings. We have also attended candlelight vigils for victims of violence on once-quiet residential blocks.
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We know public safety is as much about a resident’s feeling of security as it is about statistics. Polling is revealing that people feel less safe in Chicago than in recent memory, and crime statistics show this sentiment as well founded.
A recent survey by the Chicago Index found 30% of Chicago residents feeling “somewhat unsafe” and 46% feeling that their city was “very unsafe.” These numbers are much worse from those in surveys of recent years. Meanwhile, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability announced in its 2021 annual report that it recommended nearly double the number of Chicago police officers last year for firing or suspension compared with the previous four years combined.
COPA is a taxpayer-funded entity that is paid to find reasons to punish police officers. These reports are then used by attorneys to sue the city for hundreds of millions of dollars a year, often with the mayor’s legal team urging us to settle cases instead of going to trial.
With a system that is more punitive to police than criminals, it is no wonder we are seeing the level of crime under this administration. Police officers are getting fired while criminals are getting paid.
When policies are developed, you often do not know how it will work until it is put into practice. Chicago has been a literal testing ground for as many reforms as the City Council and the General Assembly can concoct. And now we are living with the results. The city and its residents are feeling the effects of politicians’ misplaced priorities and ideologies.
For example, the mayor has recklessly pursued a vaccine policy during the Police Department’s massive personnel crisis that could very well result in one-third of the department being disciplined or fired, not counting the lateral transfers of non-pension-eligible officers to other departments.
When we pushed the issue of rolling back the vaccine mandate in October, we did it because we saw the writing on the wall. We felt it was reckless and unnecessary and saw it for what it was: a political fight between a mayor bent on asserting her power on a police union at the expense of common-sense governance. Sadly, but not surprisingly, most of our colleagues would rather stick their heads in the sand than take action to avert the likely consequences.
It is time we pump the brakes and get back on track. We want to see our city get back to being a safe place to raise a family, start a business and visit as a tourist. We want seniors and children to feel safe, and we want the criminally minded to be afraid of what may happen if they cross the line into lawlessness. We want to grow our police ranks and have enough personnel to show those who seek to prey on our communities that their time has passed.
Here is the reality: Criminals follow the news. If the weather report says warm and sunny, people leave their coats behind. When the news outlets report the continual erosion of our Police Department and policies that make it harder for officers to do their jobs, the message is clear: It’s open season on our streets.
People with common sense know this — most politicians do not. The crisis is not going away until either more city officials wake up or there is a significant change in leadership. Either way, it needs to happen fast, because summer is coming. And it’s going to be a hot one.
Ald. Silvana Tabares represents Chicago’s 23rd Ward, Ald. Ray Lopez represents the 15th Ward and Ald. Anthony Napolitano represents the 41st Ward.
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