Category: Crime
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Emanuel’s Foolish TIF for Police Plan
Over the weekend Rahm Emanuel became the latest local politician to propose tapping funds from the city’s tax increment financing districts to help pay for city services. Emanuel said that if he is elected mayor he would use $25 million in TIF money to pay for 250 new officers that could be dispatched around the…
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CPD Considers Reallocation of Officers
Police districts on Chicago’s North Side would lose beat officers to South Side and West Side districts if the city were to reallocate cops based on the volume of 911 calls and backups for police service, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis has found. (Full story here.) The Second Ward is on both ends of this; Weis…
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They Don’t Want You to Know
I bet you have no idea how many shootings there have been in Chicago this year. Me either. And it’s not because I haven’t tried to find out. About two months ago, I started reporting on crime and public safety. In light of the on-again, off-again handgun ban and Supt. Jody Weis’ insistence that there…
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Strong-arm Robbery
At 12:30 a.m., a female Roosevelt University student was robbed of her iPhone in the 600 block of South Michigan Avenue, according to Central District police. (Full story here.) This is the kind of event that troubles me. No camera is going to stop this. And let’s be honest, it’s just not practicable to say…
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More Crime Nonsense
Let’s start with the premise: Chicago police officials reported today that October crime statistics continued a drop in violent and property crime for the 22nd consecutive month.Total crime dropped by 3.7 percent compared to the same time last year while property crime dropped by 2 percent and violent crimes dropped by 9.8 percent, police said.…
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The Chicago Way
With the election now behind us I’d like to pause on a great little story in the Trib. today. Cook County voters Tuesday narrowly retained four Circuit Court judges who had been deemed unqualified to continue on the bench by several legal groups. Jim Ryan and Susan McDunn each garnered about 63 percent of the…
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Daley: Fewer Police Next Year
Even on the way out Mayor Daley cannot be straight with us. After weeks and weeks of hammering away telling us that crime is down — when anyone west of the lake knows it’s not — along comes this half-truth. The city at the end of this year will have about 950 vacant police officer…
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CPD May Scrap Entrance Exam
Local NBC is running with this story that the Chicago Police Dept. may Scrap Entrance Exam. Hello insanity my old friend. Dropping the exam would bolster minority hiring and avert legal battles, according to one source, while others confirm that the exam could be scrapped to open the process to as many people as possible. I’m…
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Chicago Homicide Reality
Ok, I have this theory. It’s a theory about the homicide rate in Chicago and how it’s being touted by everyone from the Mayor to the media but the truth is that we’re being sold a bill of goods. “Chicago homicides drop for 2009” screams the Tribune headline and when I read it my jaw…