NAVY PIER — Chicago Police leaders renewed their call to restore community trust and crack down on illegal guns as they welcomed a new crop of nearly 100 recruits into their ranks Tuesday.
The Police Graduation and Promotion Ceremony saw 97 new officers sworn in, along with 88 new sergeants and 13 lieutenants. Al Nagode was also bumped up to Deputy Chief of Area North, and Fabian Saldana was made commander of the Shakespeare Police District.
With shootings up by about 50 percent so far in 2016 compared to this time last year, Police Supt. Eddie Johnson recited gun confiscation statistics to show that even as police crack down, easy access to guns makes poses a thorny challenge for new officers.
Over the weekend alone, when shootings left 13 people dead and another 42 wounded, police confiscated more than 100 guns, including the assault rifle used to kill 21-year-old Salvador Suarez outside a church in Back of the Yards Sunday, Johnson said.
"This is a high-powered assault rifle that fired 30 rounds in a matter of seconds," Johnson said." These are exactly the types of weapons that have captured the national spotlight. There is no place for weapons of war on the streets of Chicago."
Johnson has repeatedly beaten the drum for tougher gun laws in Springfield and Washington since before he assumed his post in March, saying Tuesday that lax penalties have "emboldened gang members" and "put offenders back on the streets."
In his own speech, Mayor Rahm Emanuel extended culpability all the way to Washington, noting that the U.S. Senate Monday "failed on four separate items" that would have imposed stricter gun regulations.
"The majority of the people are clear: Criminals should not have access to guns that belong in Afghanistan or Iraq," Emanuel said, noting his own work on the 1994 Crime Bill that included an Assault Weapons Ban.
Lawmakers in Springfield, he added, also have a part to play.
"There must be a consequence to repeat gun offenders that should be serving their time for their gun offenses," Emanuel told the new officers and command staff. "The criminal justice system cannot be a revolving door, and it's time Springfield passed legislation to keep people from creating havoc on our streets and making your job ... too difficult."
Addressing reporters after the ceremony, Johnson said he was "encouraged" by recent meetings with state lawmakers on the issue, but declined to go into more detail.
The superintendent also said police would make "adjustments" to deployment as Chicago Public Schools let out for the summer Tuesday, but again didn't wade into specifics, saying, "We don't want to put our whole playbook out there."
In his speech, Johnson also called on new officers to heed the challenge of restoring people's trust in their neighborhood police, after a year that's landed the department in a Department of Justice investigation.
"Officers ask me all the time: 'How can I do my job in this climate?'" Johnson said. "I tell them the answer is simple: trust. To be truly effective, you have to become a part of the community that residents can count on for reliable information and a sense of security."
A poll of Chicago residents commissioned by the New York Times last month found that most are distrustful of police.
"Would you ask someone you didn't trust for help? Would you give them information about a crime that occurred?" Johnson said. "I wouldn't, and I'm betting you wouldn't. So why should they?"
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