CHICAGO — Rising crime Downtown could mean more off-duty police officers moonlighting in uniform.
Some off-duty police officers would be allowed to wear their CPD uniforms while working private security through a new ordinance introduced last week by Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd).
While many Chicago police officers work security and other second jobs, allowing them to do so in uniform would help prevent future violence as crime rises across the city, Hopkins said.
Dave Matthews talks about possible complications from police wearing uniforms while off duty.
"Off-duty police officers can actually make arrests and oftentimes they do," Hopkins said. "It would be a deterring factor because you would have more cops on the street, they would just be on their day off."
Hopkins' proposal comes a few months after a man was shot and killed near the Clark and Division Red Line stop in the Gold Coast, and a few days before another was killed Sunday nearby.
The ordinance would only apply to private security firms contracted by neighborhood groups that pay special tax assessments for security and other services. Such groups exist in the Gold Coast as well as Old Town, Wicker Park and Marquette Park.
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But the idea still conflicts with the police department, which forbids officers from wearing their uniforms on their second jobs unless they have approval from Police Supt. Eddie Johnson. The practice could not only confuse the public, but open up the police department to more liability as it works to repair its image in the wake of several high-profile police-involved shootings.
And, critics say, moonlighting police can create conflicts of interest between the law and private companies hiring off-duty cops.
Spokespeople for the police department declined to comment. Dean Angelo, head of the local Fraternal Order of Police, did not return messages seeking comment.
The City Council in June signed off on a measure allowing more off-duty police to work security in uniform at McCormick Place. The city has had a similar agreement with Navy Pier security since 1996, according to the Sun-Times.
"We're simply duplicating what they're doing," Hopkins said.
Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) and Joe Moreno (1st), who did not return messages, are co-sponsors of the proposed ordinance.
Using off-duty police for security is nothing new in the Gold Coast, where one neighborhood group has paid nearly $2,000 per week the past two summers to a firm that employs officers from suburban and Cook County departments, said Bobby McGuire, owner of the Butch McGuire's pub near State and Division streets.
Last month, one Gold Coast man paid $50,000 personally for a security service that walks his block.
But putting uniforms on those police would help the cause, McGuire said.
"If anything is a deterrent visually, it's a Chicago Police officer," he said. "The more police that are visible, the better, in this neighborhood or any."
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