My Blog

Tag: Garry McCarthy

  • Police Boss: No Emergency = No Police

    As Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy tries to streamline the way his department fights violent crime, he is stepping up his potentially controversial plan to reduce his officers’ load of 911 calls.

    Facing heat over a surge in homicides as he enters his second year in Chicago, McCarthy has expressed frustration over the pace of making the logistical and policy shift necessary to free up officers from what he considers nonessential responsibilities.

    “I’ve been told we handle more types of calls for services than any other place in the country,” McCarthy said.

    He wants to keep officers from wasting their time with what he labeled the “my son won’t eat his peas” type of call.

    “We would set the policy. We’re not responding to calls for A, B and C,” McCarthy said, noting that he hasn’t yet defined “what standard would we apply.”

    via chicagotribune.com.

    Now that I’ve written about Comstat we all understand the manipulation of crime statistics.  Comstat was Plan A.  This is Plan B.

    Imagine the ability to set crime statistics by simply listening to a 911 call and right there without any other information saying what qualifies a police response.  And we already know that in Chicago no report means no crime.  By simply choosing to not send police to the scene of a crime it is nearly assured that no report will be created and thus no crime will be reported.

    When this is implemented McCarthy and Rahm are going to oversee the greatest crime reduction is city history.  Of course blood will still be flowing in the streets, thousands of cars will be stolen, drugs will be available everywhere, homes will be broken into hourly, and tourist beatings on Michigan Ave will continue.

  • Compstat

    I can’t believe that I have not already written a post on Compstat but I can’t find anything.  Grrrrrr!!

    Ok so, for those that don’t know Compstat is a system of policing accountability which originated in New York with the NYPD.  And in case you don’t know Garry McCarthy, the current Chicago Police Superintendent, is from the NYPD and eats, sleeps, sh__s, and wipes Compstat.  If Compstat was a person (woman or man) Garry McCarthy would marry it.  When McCarthy came to Chicago he brought Compstat with him.  You can find many articles about this at the Tribune, SunTimes, etc.

    So what?  Well here’s the rub:  It’s a fraud.

    No Superintendent of any police department wants to oversee an increase in crime.  No politician wants to be in office when there is an increase in crime.  So what happens is that the politicians beat down on the Superintendent who beats down on the Deputy Chiefs who beat down the Commanders who beat down on the Captains who beat down on the Lieutenants who beat down on the Sargents who beat down on the beat cops.  And just like magic, the beat cops make sure that there is less crime.  How?

    I’ve already written about how CPD brass is telling us crime is down crime is down but 911 calls to the OEMC is off the charts.  In Chicago no report = no crime.  So when police are busy and can’t get to you, your crime goes unreported, therefore there was no crime.  In Chicago we have a severe shortage of police officers.  Fewer officers means longer response times means fewer crimes are reported.  Consider this, the way that Chicago tracks crime if there were no police there would be no crime.

    Back to Compstat.  Compstat’s fraud is in addition to the crimes that actually unreported.  Compstat coerces police of all ranks to reclassify crimes in order to create the appearance of less crime.  e.g.  Instead of arresting someone for burglary (a felony) they get written-up for trespass (a misdemeanor.)  Fewer felonies means less crime.

    You don’t think it happens?  Think again.

    February 2010

    There’s something very big here. If you look at the repercussions, this stats program does for police what the Leave No Child Behind program for schools does to teachers– encourages them to shape the data. In this case, it may be putting us all at risk by fudging crime stats.

    A new survey of over 100 retired NYPD captains and senior officers found that they believed that statistics were manipulated to portray lower crime rates for the compsat program that calculates crime rates..

    The survey suggests that police have distorted crime reporting, dropping value of stolen goods so the theft is categorized as misdemeanor instead of felony. They drop categorization of crimes from felony to misdemeanor if suspects can’t be found.

    via HuffPo.

    This story forced the NYPD to clamp-down on officers who were talking about the fraud.  It took some time but two years later the NYPD forced a lawsuit by an officer who was pressured to downgrade crimes.  It was written about here, and here, and here.  A quick search will reveal other stories as well.

    So… what’s important to understand here is that you cannot trust the crime numbers put out by the police department.  It’s 100% pure manipulated hogwash.  You know that CPD is losing control of the city.  You know that your friends don’t feel as safe after Cubs games as they used to.  You see there are more street fights outside of bars.  You read in the paper that more people are getting shot than ever before.

    The difference between the truth and what the CPD reports is Compstat.

     

    UPDATE 06/30/2012:  Silly me had “comstat” instead of “compstat”.  I need an editor.

  • Fighting Crime The Chicago Way!

    CeaseFire Illinois, a group that works against violence, is being recruited by the city of Chicago as part of a pilot program to help reduce crime in two police districts, one on the West Side and the other on the South Side.  …

    The city will give the group a one-year grant for $1 million to hire 40 “interrupters” who will mediate conflicts in the Ogden and Grand Crossing districts, where gun violence has spiked.  …

    This is the first time CeaseFire has received funding from the City of Chicago. Previously, it was largely funded through state and county sources.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    So says the Tribune.  The SunTimes story is similar.  Both FAIL to mention what CeaseFire really is… the public relations arm of coordinated Chicago street gangs.

    In this city known for rampant corruption and cronyism the politicians know what to do with the money they extort from taxpayers! Whenever possible taxes here are only used to support thieves, thugs and liars.  …

    Chicago’s politicians have agreed to hand over $1,000,000.00 to a group calling themselves, “Cease Fire”. They were founded simply to take city tax money and pretend they’re working on violence reduction. Of course Cease Fire will be working in “secret negations” to make Chicago safer. I’m sure the time and money will be easy to audit that way.

    Cease Fire is a group of, not so retired ghetto gangsters with significant rap sheets that are supposed to convince their pals not to kill each other, or innocent civilians.

    via CRIME, GUNS, AND VIDEOTAPE.

    This is insanity.  The gang bangers are going to completely fabricate the number of “interruptions” in violence.  McCarthy will permit it because it creates the appearance that the money was well spent.

    Shouldn’t the city counsel have to weigh-in on this sort of spending?  Where’s the Alderman (and Aldermen) stand on this?

  • McCarthy (Rahm) Shakes-up Police Brass (Not Really)

    This past week Rahm launched an ambitious plan to revitalize the city.  However in order to make that work, he must first prevent Chicago from becoming Gotham.  The post below talks about how the lack of enough police officers is causing a false reduction in the number of crimes being reported.  I personally think that Rahm and McCarthy know this. But while money’s so tight, they just have to make due until sunnier days come along.

    Nevertheless, they have to maintain the appearance of doing something to stay on top of criminal element.

    So along comes this story about McCarthy moving some top folks around at CPD:

    With Chicago suffering a 35 percent spike in murders this year, police Supt. Garry McCarthy announced a reshuffling of his command staff Friday, replacing commanders in five of the city’s 23 districts.

    McCarthy also promoted three supervisors to deputy chief positions. He said the changes were made to “strengthen the department’s ongoing efforts to reduce violence” and create a “more efficient departmental structure.”  …

    A police spokeswoman said no district commanders were demoted to make way for the changes in those five districts. They replaced commanders who were promoted to other positions or retired, she said.  …

    As of Thursday, there have been 114 murders this year in Chicago — up 35 percent compared with the same period last year.But department records also show that, through March 18, overall crime has dropped 10 percent throughout the city compared with the same period in 2011.

    via Chicago Sun-Times.

    This is not a shake-up.  A shake-up is where people are shown the door for poor performance.  People are held accountable.  …

    Rahm and McCarthy know that it’s not really these folks fault.  Everyone knows that the real problem is that there’s not enough officers to go around.  This is just a PR stunt — feeding something, anything to the masses — to create the illusion that Rahm and McCarthy are taking this seriously.

  • Chicago: 1 Night, 8 Shot, 2 Dead

    A 22-year-old man was fatally shot in a Far South Side liquor store Saturday evening, police said, and a 46-year-old man was killed about 45 minutes later.

    At least six others were shot on the South and West sides overnight.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    While notable, not a record.

    At the time of the story, 36 hours ago, there was no word from the mayor about how he was going to stop the carnage.  Today there was news on that:

    One week after dozens of people were shot in a deadly outburst of street violence, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and police Superintendent Garry McCarthy sought Monday to assure the public they are focused on combating gang crime.

    The announcement of a gang crackdown on the West Side was the first joint appearance by Emanuel and McCarthy since news broke that 10 people were fatally shot over the March 17-18 weekend, including a 6-year-old girl. Police say gangs are largely responsible for the violent start to 2012 in Chicago, which has seen fatal and nonfatal shootings on the rise.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    Good luck.  My guess is that you’re going to have to get about 1,500 new kids into the police academy.  That would really put more cops on the street.  All the cops I know can’t get too wrapped-up in gang matters because they spend every shift running from call to call to call to call.  Cops on the street need to have a little down time to work the issue on the streets, cultivate contacts, bring in informants, and keep the little kids out of trouble.  Right now there’s just no time for any of that.

    And then we have to look at Anita Alvarez, and the elected judges of Cook County.  The message needs to be sent that if you’re a gang-banger and get caught you’re going to do serious time.  Every weapons possession by a felon needs to be referred to the U.S. Attorney’s office for federal prosecution.

    Eventually the gang will get the message… but you can’t send this message when you’re short 1,500 people.

  • Chicago Police Supt. Promises To Curb Gang Violence

    Garry McCarthy says the intelligence is there. It’s just a matter of getting the information to beat officers so they can anticipate a retaliatory gang shooting.

    “We’re going to get our head around this thing and we’re going to turn it around is what it boils down to,” McCarthy told reporters on Monday. “If we were sitting here saying we don’t know what’s going on, we don’t know what to do, that would be a different situation. We know what’s going on. We’re putting pieces in place to make sure we can stem this tide.”

    via CBS Chicago.

    So if I understand this correctly, McCarthy is saying that he believes beat officers are supposed to be able to “anticipate a retaliatory gang shooting”?  The problem thus far has been that “It’s just a matter of getting the information to beat officers.”

    This is a most amazing pile of tripe.  I can’t believe CBS published this without any follow-up comments.  I guess they’re the new PR dept. for City Hall and McCarthy.

    1. It’s the beat officers who do predict when a retaliatory gang shooting is going to happen; soon after a previous gang hit.
    2. The beat officers are so busy going from call to call that there is no time to be “policing” the gang members until something bad happens at which time they get the call.
    3. All the special units which used to handle these gang matters were dissolved by Rahm in order to “put 1,000 25 new cops on the street.

    Manpower is an issue:

    [FOP talking head Pat] Camden says the department loses 50 officers a month to attrition, leaving police short-handed on the street.

    “I don’t think they’ve hired 600 officers in the past five years,” he said.

    Worse, Rahm (and Alderman Beale) have specifically planned to reduce the number of police on the street.

    Police Supt. Garry McCarthy told the Chicago Sun-Times earlier week that he’s been asked to cut $190 million from the Police Department’s $1.3 billion-a-year budget and would only get halfway there by eliminating 1,400 police vacancies.

    via Chicago Sun-Times Sept. 02, 2011.

    And for those who don’t remember, these were not police who were working, these were vacancies.  Open budgeted spots where Daley was too busy with flower boxes to bring on new officers.

    CPD is short manpower & we’re all suffering because of it.