After 12 years of shrinking police force that has cut and paired down service despite a growing city and metro area and an increased call demand, the brass has realized there is noting more to cut. One of the ACs, a good man, has sat down, crunched numbers, and has tried to quantify levels of police response. Radio's SOP for a Priority one call is to send two officers. He found the average number of officers needed for that level of call is five. Then, he looked at call volume and response. West and East Precinct officers spend over 42 percent of their day not being able to respond to calls as fast as they come in. As a result, calls hold, sometimes for hours, including priority calls. He wants to shift from a 3 shift configuration to a four. A small mini shift of four officers will work from 1100 to 2100 hours. His numbers show this adjustment will relieve the backlog and reduce the amount of time where calls wait.
The AC took ownership of the endeavor. Succeed or fail, it is his idea. It is leadership we seldom see.
The problem is we tried this solution few years ago when we had more officers. The shift failed and it went away.
I've said it before...boy, dike, finger. Except the adults aren't coming to save the day.
The funds the police need are spent making the job more difficult.
Posted by: Ralph Boyd | September 19, 2019 at 04:46 AM
I don't know your policy on language in this blog but here goes:
You're all fucked.
And there is no kisses or KY Jelly in sight.
Posted by: fritz | September 19, 2019 at 12:17 PM
I believe there is a saying for this: "Shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic"....
I work in EMS in our same city. I've seen the decline over the years, and all I have to say is that I'm glad I don't live in the city, or even the county proper (one county south). I just wish I didn't work right across the river from downtown.
The bureau has been hamstrung far too long, and unfortunately even if the funds were suddenly made appropriate today for sufficient officers on the street (instead of converting car lanes to even more bike lanes, etc, ad nauseum) I don't think we would get sufficient people willing to work law enforcement under the decidedly anti-police mindset of our city.
Posted by: Jon | September 20, 2019 at 12:18 PM
Jon,
You are correct. When you let infrastructure languish (and people are infrastructure in this regard) you end up with a wasteland like Chicago...
As for you being and ems?
You might like this blog.
http://www.ambulancedriverfiles.com/
Posted by: fritz | September 20, 2019 at 05:53 PM
The AC that designed the program is now the DC. It starts today.
Posted by: RD | January 09, 2020 at 02:28 AM