CANARYVILLE — In a room packed with neighborhood folks looking for an update on 11th Ward happenings, Ald. Patrick D. Thompson (11th) commended Mayor Rahm Emanuel on his plans to hire more than 900 police officers over the next two years.
Those hirings will be included in the mayor’s 2017 budget, Thompson said from a stage at St. Gabriel School.
“That’s what the mayor’s plan is,” Thompson said. “I commend him on it. I support that.”
At a recent City Council briefing, Thompson said, the mayor shared his plans for for police hiring: In 2017, the city will hire 545 police officer and another 450 in 2018.
By adding 100 new recruits a month through 2018 to also address attrition and 400 currently vacant positions, Johnson said the department will go from 12,656 sworn officers to 13,535. The expansion will begin in the Englewood and Harrison districts.
This has been a particularly violent year for Chicago. The city has had more murders than New York and Los Angeles combined, prompting city officials to call for more cops on the streets.
The big question, Thompson said, is how the city will pay for it. City officials have said that each officer hired would have an immediate cost of $100,000 in salaries and benefits.
“The devil’s in the details,” Thompson said. “He’s planning on doing all of that, as he said, without raising taxes, so we want to look and see as of next Tuesday, when he announces the budget, where all those monies are coming from and how we’re going to fund that.”
At a recent speaking engagement on the Far South Side, Emanuel didn't go into detail about how many officers would be hired or how the city would fund these changes, but said there are "certain fiscal conditions that have improved in the city.”
The mayor was likely referring to funding sources, including a water and sewer tax, he's identified to help boost city pension funds.
In the 11th Ward, Thompson isn’t too worried about the city finding the cash.
“I’m optimistic that he’s going to find a way to do that without raising taxes,” Thompson said.
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